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THE    HONORABLE    PETER     WHITE. 


The  Honorable  Peter  White 


A  BIOGRAPHICAL  SKETCH  OF  THE  LAKE 
SUPERIOR  IRON  COUNTRY 


BY 


RALPH   D.  WILLIAMS 


WITH  xi'me;roUvS  illustrations 


THE  PENTON  PUBLISHING  CO. 

CLEVELAND  ,  ---   ■     ' 


V^7^ 


\ao 


•  •.'•  .• 


«   •    . 


Copyrighted    1907 

by 

The    Penton    Publishing    Company, 

Cleveland. 


This  book  is  respectfully  dedicated 

to  the 

great  Iron  and  Steel   trade 

of  the 

United  States 


THE  growlh  of  our  enormous  iron  and  steel  industries,  which 
are  pointed  out  as  the  result  of  our  protective  tariff,  can 
be  more  surely  traced  to  our  enormous  resources  in  the 
iron  mines  of  Michigan,  Wisconsin  and  Minnesota  than  from  all 
other  sources.  The  cheap  production  of  the  highest  grade  of  ore 
in  these  mines  and  the  low  rates  of  transportation  to  Lake  Erie 
ports  have  done  more  to  build  up  the  iron  and  steel  industries  of 
the  United  States  than  all  the  tariffs  that  have  ever  been  placed 
upon  the  statute  books,  and  today,  if  these  mines  were  closed, 
our  superiority  in  the  iron  and  steel  trade  of  the  world  would  be 
gone  forever.     J.  J.  Hill,   President  Great  Northern  Railway. 


Mie9595 


^f 


CONTENTS. 


Prologue. — Early  History  of  Lake  SurERiOR. — Commercial  Discovery 
OF  Copper. — The  Discovery  of  Iron  Ore. 


The  Journey  to  the  Iron  Mines. 

The  Founding  of  Marquette. 

The  Overland  Journey  to  Escanaba. 

Proving  the  Claims  to  the  Iron  Deposits. 

First  Ore  Hauled  from  Cleveland  Mine. 

Peter  White  Becomes  Postmaster. 

First  Lake  Shipment  of  Iron  Ore. 

First  Use  of  the  Ore  in  Pennsylvania  and  Ohio. 

Peter  White  and  His  Dog  Sleds. 

Building  the  Old  Strap  Railroad. 

Sault  Ste.  Marie  Before  the  Canal. 

Lake  Superior  Shipping  Before  the  Canal. 

Construction  of  the  Sault  Ste.  Marie  Canal. 

First  Shipment  of  Ore  Through  the  Canal. 

Steam  Railroad  Finished  to  the  Mines. 

Pig  Iron  Manufacture  in  the  Peninsula. 

Peter  White  as  a  Business  Man. 
Chapter  XVIII.     Solving  the  Problem  of  Unloading  Ore. 
Chapter  XIX.        Discovery  of  the  Mesabi  Range. 
Chapter  XX.  Subsequent  Locks  of  Sault  Ste.  Marie  Canal. 

Chapter  XXI.        Francis  H.  Clergue  and  His  Industries. 
Chapter  XXII.       Peter  White's  Monument  is  Presque  Isle. 
Chapter  XXIII.     The  Sault  Canal  Semi-Centennial  Celebration. 
Epilogue. 
Conclusion. 


Chapter  I. 
Chapter  II. 
Chapter  HI. 
Chapter  IV. 
Chapter  V. 
Chapter  VI. 
Chapter  VII. 
Chapter  VIII. 
Chapter  IX. 
Chapter  X. 
Chapter  XL 
Chapter  XII. 
Chapter  XIII. 
Chapter  XIV. 
Chapter  XV. 
Chapter  XVI. 
Chapter  XVII 


IX 


ILLUSTRATIONS. 

The  Honorable  Peter  White Frontispiece 

Dr.  Douglas  Houghton 5 

Three  Implements  Found  at  the  Old  Copper  Mines 8 

The  Cliff  Mine  in  the  Spring  of  1845 12 

John  Hays   13 

William  A.  Burt  • 19 

The  Site  of  the  Old  Jackson  Forge 21 

Philo  M.   Everett 22 

Ariel  N.  Barney 24 

Charles  Bawgam,  the  Chippewa  Chief 25 

Original  Jackson  Mine 26 

Jackson  Stump   27 

Dr.  Zina  Pitcher   . 33 

Alexander  L.  Crawford  48 

Fac-Simile  of  Bill  of  Lading  of  the  First  Shipment  of  Ore 63 

John  J.  Spearman  at  22 74 

J.  J.  Spearman,  1907 75 

M.  S.  Marquis  in  1850  76 

John  T.  Reeves  and  M.  S.  Marquis 77 

Charles  T.  Howard  78 

W.  J.  Gordon   83 

The  Side  Wheel  Steamer  Illinois 81 

Capt.  J.  H.  Andrews  86 

Johnston's  PIouse  as  it  Appears  Today,  From  the  Street  Front.  .  94 

Johnston's  House  as  it  Appears  Today,  From  the  River  Front.  ...  95 

The  Old  Hudson  Bay  Co.'s  Lock 97 

The  Elms  Under  Which  Tanner's  House  Stood,  1905 104 

The  Correct  Rig  of  the  Griffin 109 

Showing  All  That  is  Left  of  the  Algonquin 112 

John   Burt   118 

Original  Upper  Lock  of  1855 119 

Method  of  Operating  Original  Lock  Gates 120 

P'irst  Map  of  Proposed  Canal  and  Locks  at  Sault  Ste.  Marie.  . .  .  121 

The  Locks  That  Were  in  Continued  Use  From  1855  to  1887 123 

Capt.  Eber  B.  Ward 128 

Mr.  Charles  T.  Harvey  as  He  is  Today 132 

X 


ILLUSTRATIONS— (Continuc-d)  XI 

The  Brig  Columbia   • 138 

Jacob  Reese  in  1855 139 

Jacob  Reese  in  1906 1-+1 

Dr.  George  B.  Russel 142 

Propeller  Mineral  Rock 143 

Peter  White  in  the  60's 146 

The  Old  Iron  Mountain  Railroad's  First  Hand  Bill 149 

L.  D.  Harvey  in  1856 154 

Diagram  of  Blowing  Engine  for  the  Pioneer  Furnace 162 

The  Furnace  at  Forestyille,  Near  Marquette 163 

The  Old  Charcoal  Kilns  Near  Negaunee • 16-''- 

Morgan  Furnace,  Built  in  1863 16-J 

Greenwood  Furnace,  Built  in  1864 16i 

Clarksburg  Furnace,  Built  in  1866 165 

Champion  Furnace,  Built  in  1867 165 

Munising  Furnace,  Built  in  1868 165 

Grx\ce  Furnace,  Marquette,  Mich 166 

Plan  of  the  Pioneer  Furnace  in  1857 167 

L.  D.  Haryey  as  He  is  Today 168 

Tug  Champion  Towing  a  Fleet  of  Schooners  Through  the  Ri\ers  169 

Village  of  Marquette  About  1861 • 172 

AJarouette  Docks  and  Shipping  About  1861 173 

Marquette  Harbor  in   1863 175 

The  Schooner  James  F.  Toy 178 

Sarnia  Bay  in  1870 ' 180 

Little  Dock  Engine  Installed  on  the  Nypano  Dock,  Cleveland,  ' 

1867   182 

The  Steamer  V.  H.  Ketchum,  Launched  in  1874 183 

The  Wooden  Fleet  in  Shelter  at  Sand  Beach 184 

Ashtabula  Harbor  in  1874  185 

The  Second  Stage  of  Ore  Unloading 187 

Alexander  E.  Brown 189 

Robert  Aspin   190 

Another  View  of  the  Brown  Bridge  Tramway  at  Ashtabula.  .  . .    191 

Cfiampion  Ore  Hoists,  Sectional  View 192 

Diagram  of  Champion  Ore  Hoist 193 

The  Champion  Ore  Hoists  at  the  Illinois  Steel  Co.'s  Plant.  ....    194 

Steamer  E.  H.  Gary  Under  Unloading  Machine,  Conneaut 196 

A^iew  of  Harbor  of  Ashtabula  in  1902 197 

Brown  Grab  Bucket  in  the  Hold  of  Steamer  Wolvin 199 

PJulett  Clam-Shell  Bucket  in  the  Wolvin's  Hold 200 

Showing  Third  Stage  of  Ore  Handling 201 

George  H.  Hulett       203 

Pine  A'iew  of  the  Brown  Electric  Fast  Plant  at  Conneaut 204 

Brown  Bridge  Tramways  of  the  Buffalo  &  Si'souehanna  Iron 

Co.'s  Plant  at  Buffalo 205 


XII  ILLUSTRATIONS— (Continued) 

New  Hur.ETT  Unloading  Machines  at  National  Tube  Co/s  Plant 

AT  Lorain    206 

Demolishing  the  Original  Locks  of  1855 207 

Brown  Electrical  Unloading  Machines  at  Conneaut 208 

American  Locks,  Sault  Ste.  Marie  Canal 210 

Gen.  O.  M.  Poe  212 

The  Great  Canadian  Lock  at  Sault  Ste.  Marie 21t 

Indians  Fishing  in  the  Rapids 215 

The  Approach  to  Sault  Ste.  Marie  Canai 216 

Mr.  Francis  H.  Clergue 218 

MiCHiPicoTEN   Harbor   219 

The  Ground  Wood  Pulp  Mill   220 

The  Great  Powm^:r  Canal  on  the  Michigan  Side 221 

General  View  of  Lake  Superior  Corporation's  Works 222 

Panoramic  View  of  Clergue  Industries  223 

Head  Gates,  Power  Canal,  Michigan,  Lake  Superior  Power  Co.  ,  .   224 
Chemical  Laboratory   and   Sulphite   Pulp   Mill  at    Sault   Ste. 

Marie    225 

The  Blast  Furnaces  at  Sault  Ste.  Marie 117 

General  View  of  Blast  Furnaces  and  Water  Approach 229 

The  Rail  jMill  at  Sault  Ste.  Marie 231 

Peter  White  at  the  Cleveland  Co.'s  Semi-Centennial 237 

Peter  White  Public  Library 239 

Charles  T.   Harvey,   Chief  Marshal 245 

The  Flag  of  the  Admiral  of  the  Day 246 

Admiral  Peter  White's  Flagship   Marigold 247 

The  Land   Parade.   Sault   Ste.    Marie   Semi-Centennial 248 

Indian  Tepees  at  Sault  Canal  Semi-Centennial 249 

Flagship  Marigold  Passing  Between  Wolverine  and  Yantic...   250 

Training  Ship  Yantic  at  Sault  Canal  Celebration 251 

In  the  Speakers'  Stand,  Sault  Ste.  Marie  Semi-Centenniai 253 

Naval  Vessels  in  the  Great  Poe  Lock 255 

Canadian  Lock  with  Gates  Closed 256 

The  Indian  Tepees  on  the  Canal  Park 259 

Naval  Vessels  in  Canadian  Lock 261 

The  Connecting  Links  of  the  Half  Century 265 

The  ]\Ionolith  Erected  at  Sault  Ste.   Marie  by  the  Semi-Cen- 
tennial  Commission .   267 

\\YjsN  OF  THE  Semi-Centennial  Naval  Parade 269 

Peter  White  on  the  Front  Lawn  of  His  Home,  1907 279 

Peter  Whitf/s  FIome  in  Marquette 280 

Photographing  Deer  at  Night   281 

Peter  White  in  his  Flower  Garden  at  Home,  1907 283 

T"he  Honorable  Peter  White  as  He  is  Today 286 


PREFACE. 

This  book  is  unlike  any  other  in  that  it  is  really  a  romance  though  it  deals 
with  facts.  There  is  no  statement  in  it  that  is  not  result  of  patient  re- 
search. It  has  seemed  best  to  write  it  while  it  was  yet  possible,  for  the  in- 
formation which  it  contains  has  been  secured  at  first  hand.  The  industrial 
supremacy  of  the  United  States  among  nations  is  due  wholly  to  the  purity, 
abundance,  cheapness  of  mining  and  low  rate  of  transportation  of  Lake  Su- 
perior ores.  There  are  living  chronicles  today  of  the  early  development  of 
this  region — men,  who  as  boys  went  into  that  country  to  develop  it,  then  an 
unbroken  wilderness — and  from  their  lips  the  story  has  been  secured.  Ob- 
viously if  not  written  now  it  could  not,  in  a  little  while,  be  written  at  all.  So 
vast  indeed  has  been  the  progress  since  that  it  seems  incredible  that  it  should 
have  occurred  within  the  lifetime  of  one  man.  Yet  Lake  Superior,  in  a  com- 
mercial sense,  is  only  fifty  years  old.  The  beginnings,  therefore,  of  this 
great  iron  industry  are  historically  important  and  are  of  interest  to  every 
citizen  in  the  L'nited  States,  for  there  is  not  a  man  or  woman  today  living 
who  has  not  been,  directly  or  indirectly,  benefited  by  the  great  mineral  wealth 
of  the  Lake  Superior  country  and  the  labor  of  winning  it  and  working  it  into 
the  arts. 

It  has  seemed  just  also  to  incorporate  the  work  under  the  title  which  has 
been  given  to  it.  Peter  White,  as  a  boy,  assisted  in  stripping  the  first  iron 
mine ;  he  wrote  the  bill  of  lading  of  one  of  the  earliest,  if  not  the  first,  ship- 
ment of  ore — only  six  barrels,  it  is  true,  but  how  prodigious  has  the  stream 
grown  since ;  and  moreover  he  is  still  active  in  this  great  industrial  theater. 
The  first  shipments  of  ore  are  traced  through  the  furnaces,  refractory,  rebel- 
lious and  not  easy  to  smelt,  because  the  early  furnaces  were  not  adapted  to  it. 
The  painful  hauling  of  the  ore  to  the  shore  of  the  lake  in  sleighs  in  the  winter 
time  and  along  a  plank  road  in  the  summer  time  is  depicted  ;  the  equally 
painful  portage  around  the  rapids  of  St.  Alary's  river,  to  be  loaded  again 
upon  tiny  vessels  ;  the  tedious  and  expensive  loading  and  unloading  by  wheel- 
barrows and  gang  planks ;  until  in  the  course  of  time  the  portage  gives  way 
to  the  canal,  the  plank  road  to  the  most  solidly  constructed  railways  in  the 
world,  the  wheelbarrows  to  the  great  docks  with  their  pockets  and  chutes 

XIII 


XIV  PREFACE 

and  the  equally  great  automatic  unloading  machines ;  and  the  tiny  vessels  to 
a  fleet  of  ships  so  large  in  size  that  ocean  liners  scarcely  rival  them  and  so 
numerous  that  over  a  waterway  i,ooo  miles  long  one  is  never  out  of  sight 
of  the  other — and  all  this  within  a  single  lifetime.  The  record  of  the  Lake 
Superior  iron  ore  output  is  noted  below  by  years.  It  is  given  because  it  is  re- 
sponsible for  the  great  commercial  panorama  that  is  to  be  seen  any  day  on 
the  great  lakes  of  North  America  and  for  the  widespread  prosperity  that  the 
iron  and  steel  trade  of  the  United  States  has  enjoyed : 

Year.  Tons.  Year.                      Tons. 

1855 1,449  1881 2,307,005 

1856 36,343  1882 2,965,412 

1857 25,646  1883 2,352,840 

1858 15,876  1884 2,518,693 

1859 68,832  1885 2,466,642 

i860 114,401  1886 3,565,144 

1861 49,909  1887 4,762,107 

1862 124,169  1888 5,063,877 

1863 203,055  1889 7,292,643 

1864 243,127  1890 9,003,725 

1865 236,208  1891 7,071,053 

1866 278,796  1892 9,072,241 

1867 473,567  1893 6,065,716 

1868 491,449  1894 7,748,312 

1869 617,444  1895 10,429,037 

1870 830,940  1896 9,934,828 

1871 779,607  1897 12,464,574 

1872 900,901  1898 14,024,673 

1873 1,162,458  1899 18,251,804 

1874 919,557  1900 19,059,393 

1875 891,257  1901 20,593,537 

1876 992,764  1902 27,571,121 

1877 ■ 1,015,087  1903 24,289,878 

1S78 1,111,100  1904 21,822,839 

1879 1,375,691  1905 34,353,456 

1880 1,908,745  1906 38,522,239 


The   Honorable   Peter  White 


PART      I 


The  Early  History  of  Copper  Mines 

The  Discovery  of  Iron  Ore 

The    Founding   of  Marquette 

First   Test   of  Lake    Superior   Ore 


■       J    3  > 


PROLOGUE. 

EARLY  HISTORY  OF  LAKE  SUPERIOR. 

""THIS  is  the  story  of  a  man's  life.  But  what  a  Hfe  it  has  been  and  is. 
The  tale  will  be  told  as  simply  and  as  succinctly  as  possible,  but  if 
there  be  digressions  in  the  narrative  it  will  be  because  the  theater  in  which 
the  life  has  been  spent  is  so  stupendous  as  to  compel  them.  When  a  man's 
life  is  linked  with  a  country  it  is  impossible  to  chronicle  it  without  chron- 
iclinf?"  the  history  of  the  country.  In  all  new  countries  there  is  one  man 
who  typifies  the  region ;  and  while  gigantic  figures  have  moved  across  the 
face  of  this  marvelous  panorama  there  is  none  so  singularly  attractive  as 
he  who  is  the  central  figure  of  this  rapid  sketch.  For  he  is  the  very 
embodiment  of  the  spirit  of  the  country  in  which  he  lives.  Its  sheer  rugged- 
ness  is  in  his  frame  as  though  out  of  the  metal-shot  soil  he  had  absorbed 
the  iron  of  his  constitution.  If  you  will  take  any  man  who  has  lived  close 
to  nature  you  will  find  the  most  splendid  specimen  of  manhood  to  be 
found  anywhere.  Nature  is  open,  fran|:  and  earnest,  sometimes  terribly 
so,  but  always  genuine.  The  men  who  lie  closest  to  her  have  these  self- 
same attributes.  Their  simplicity  is  charming.  Take  a  man  whose  life 
has  been  with  the  elements  and  he  is  invariably  without  guile.  The  men 
who  opened  up  the  American  frontier  were  this  sort  of  men.  They  stood 
for  law  and  order  and  would  have  it  at  the  price  of  life.  They  were  the  ad- 
vance guard  of  civilization.  They  made  it  possible  for  decent  men  and 
women  to  live  on  the  edges  of  the  wilderness.  It  is  a  pity  that  the  yellow- 
backed  novelist  has  been  their  only  biographer  ;  but  some  day  the  white  light 
will  beat  uijcn  them  and  will  reveal  them  as  they  really  are. 

While  this  a  frontier  story  there  is  neither  blood  nor  thunder  in  it. 
It  is  not  lacking,  however,  in  the  element  of  romance.  Indeed  it  would 
be  impossil:)le  to  find  in  real  life  a  more  romantic  tale.  As  a  work  of  imagina- 
tion there  is  nothing  comparable  to  the  Count  of  Monte  Cristo  in  the  realm 
of  romantic  fict'on.  One  is  held  in  thralldom  by  the  unlimited  wealth  of 
this  creature  of  fiction.     Money  is  the  talisman  to  which  all  doors  open  and 


2  THE    HONORABLE    PETER   WHITE 

to  which  all  achievements  are  possible.  It  is  easy,  therefore,  to  comprehend 
the  fascination  which  tliis  story  possesses.  There  is  but  one  other  attribute 
open  to  the  romancist  which  occupies  a  like  hold  upon  the  mind — and  that 
is  the  possession  of  unconquerable  physical  strength.  Hugo  utilized  this  in 
his  character  of  Jean  A'aljean.  \A'hat  then  is  to  be  said  of  this  story 
when  its  base  lias  a  wealth  wdiich  is  far  greater  than  that  which  Dumas 
could  possibly  have  credited  to  Edmond  Dantes  and  when  the  very  country 
breeds  men  whose  powers  of  endurance  rival  those  of  Hugo's  hero?  Has 
it  not  the  elements  in  it  out  of  which  to  weave  the  fabric  of  the  great 
American  novel  so  long  expected  and  so  long  delayed? 

For  the  story  is  distinctlv  American.  Indeed  there  is  nothing  more 
distinctlv  American,  though  it  mieht  have  been  a  Canadian  tale  had  it 
not  been  for  the  foresight  of  the  great  Benjamin  Franklin,  who  deflected 
his  pencil  a  bit  on  a  certain  memorable  occasion  and  caused  the  upper 
peninsula  of  Michigan  to  be  included  within  the  American  boundary. 
Franklin  did  a  great  many  things  for  his  country  which  dwell  more  or 
less  freshly  in  the  memory  of  posterity ;  but  this  one  thing,  long  since 
forgotten,  if  indeed  ever  adequately  comprehended,  was  in  a  material 
sense  the  greatest  of  them  all.  It  was  the  vague  report  of  mineral  wealth 
in  that  unbroken  region  which  caused  his  pencil  to  make  the  almost  imper- 
ceptible deflection  upon  the  map. 

For  long  years,  for  centuries,  it  had  been  known  that  that  region 
was  rich  in  metallic  substances.  Copper  was  the  one  metal  know^n  to  exist 
in  great  quantities.  However,  the  world  may  as  well  not  have  known, 
for  it  never  took  advantage  of  the  information.  The  country  was  too 
vaguelv  fixed  in  the  imagination  to  have  a  commercial  value.  As  early 
as  1636  La  Garde,  in  a  little  book  published  in  Paris,  made  known  the 
existence  of  copper  in  that  far  countr}'  by  the  unsalted  seas.  Boucher  in 
his  historv,  ]iublished  in  1640,  asserts  that  "there  are  in  this  region  mines 
of  copper,  tin.  antimony  and  lead."  He  also  refers  to  a  great  island,  fifty 
leagues  in  circumference,  (which  is  doubtless  the  one  now^  called  Michipo- 
coten)  where  "there  is  a  very  beautiful  mine  of  copper."  He  also  speaks 
of  a  large  ingot  of  copper,  weighing  800  lbs.  and  from  which  the  Indians 
cut  off  pieces  with  their  axes  after  having  softened  it  by  fire. 

The  Jesuits,  too,  in  the  recital  of  their  missionary  work,  which  ex- 
tended from  1632  to  1672,  frequentlv  speak  of  the  existence  of  copper. 
Claude  Allouez,  whose  contributions  are  the  most  valuable  on  the  subject, 
visited  the  Lake  Superior  region  in  1666.  He  makes  mention  of  a  large 
mass  of  native  copper  which  was  plainly  visible  near  the  shore  of  the  lake 
and  relates  that  the  Indians  who  passed  that  way,  cut  pieces  from  it.     Indeed 


EARLY    HISTORY    OF    LAKE    SUPERIOR  3 

he  says  that  the  Indians  frequently  had  pieces  of  copper  weighing  from 
10  to  20  pounds  and  that  they  held  the  specimens  in  superstitious  awe.  A 
map  of  this  region  was  drawn  hy  these  zealous  missionaries  in  1672,  which, 
to  this  day,  is  electrifying  in  its  accuracy.  However,  the  observations  of 
the  Jesuits  are  important  from  the  historical  standpoint  only ;  in  the  com- 
mercial development  of  the  region  they  play  no  part  whatever.  It  would 
be  interesting  to  pursue  them  further  were  it  not  for  the  fact  that  the 
present  story  has  to  do  with  a  personality  whose  blood  still  runs  red  in  his 
veins. 

The  first  attempt  at  development  was  made  as  the  result  of  an  ac- 
count of  the  mineral  deposits  made  by  Capt.  Jonathan  Carver,  who  visited 
Lake  Superior  in  1765.  His  story  so  captivated  Alexander  Henry,  an 
Englishman  of  venturesome  spirit,  that  he  organized  a  companv  to  exploit 
the  resources  of  the  region.  Many  of  the  nobility  went  into  the  venture 
and  even  the  King  of  England  became  a  stockholder.  As  a  matter  of  record 
it  may  be  noted  that  the  partners  in  England  were  His  Royal  Highness, 
the  Duke  of  Gloucester,  Mr.  Secretary  Townsend,  Sir  Samuel  Tucket,  JNIr. 
Baxter,  consul  of  the  Empress  of  India,  and  Mr.  Cruickshank;  in  America, 
Sir  William  Johnson,  Mr.  Bostwick  and  ]\Ir.  Alexander  Henry.  Henry 
and  his  comrades  built  a  barge  at  Point  Aux  Pins  and  laid  the  keel  of 
a  sloop  of  40  tons.  They  sailed  in  May  1771  for  the  "island  of  vellow 
sand"  and  found  several  veins  of  copper  and  lead.  Upon  their  return  to 
Point  Aux  Pins  they  erected  an  air  furnace.  The  assayer  reported  on 
the  ores  which  they  collected  that  the  lead  ore  contained  silver  in  the 
proportion  of  40  ounces  to  the  ton.  but  the  copper  ore  a  very  small  propor- 
tion indeed.  They  were  accompanied  on  the  next  expedition  by  Mr.  Nor- 
berg,  a  Russian  gentleman  acquainted  with  metals  who  found  a  loose  stone 
weighing  eight  pounds  of  a  1)lue  color  and  semi-transparent.  This  he 
later  carried  to  England  where  it  assayed  in  the  proportion  of  60  pounds 
of  silver  to  a  hundred  weight  of  ore.  It  was  deposited  in  the  British 
Museum.  Henry's  later  researches  appear  not  to  have  been  crowned  with 
success.  His  explorations  gave  such  little  promise  of  substantial  returns 
that  his  English  partners  refused  to  further  contribute  to  the  enterprise. 
This  adventurous  spirit  then  undertook  that  series  of  exploits  which  have 
inseparably  linked  his  name  with  the  history  of  Mackinac  island  and 
which  makes  his  character  a  striking  one  both  for  the  novelist  and  dra- 
matist. 

Incredible  as  it  may  seem,  this  region,  richer  in  actual  value  to  man- 
kind that  any   other   section   of   this   great   round   globe,   lav   dormant    for 


4  THE     HONORABLE     PETER   WHITE 

nearly  a  century  after  Henry's  luckless  venture.  The  world,  lustful  for 
gold  as  it  is,  apparently  forgot  all  that  had  been  written  about  it.  Even 
Afichigan,  when  it  was  admitted  into  the  union  as  a  state  in  1836,  pro- 
tested against  the  inclusion  of  the  upper  peninsula  within  her  borders. 
She  almost  went  to  war  over  it.*  The  Lake  Superior  region,  in  a  com- 
mercial sense,  is  only  fifty  years  old.  This  is  an  incontestible  but  stupend- 
ous fact.  It  brings  its  entire  development  within  the  life  of  our  subject 
and  is  the  very  circumstance  which  gives  to  his  career  its  magnificent 
setting.  No  other  man  has  moved  so  continually  upon  such  a  stage.  It  is 
simply  Titanic. 

Posteritv  will  forever  owe  a  delit  to  Dr.  Douglas  Houghton  for  the 
work  which  he  did  as  the  first  of  Michigan's  state  geologists.  He  traversed 
the  south  shore  of  Lake  Superior  during  his  investigations  five  times  in 
a  birch  bark  canoe,  and  his  practiced  eye  saw  at  once  the  great  mineral 
wealth  that  was  awaiting  the  hand  of  man.  He  stated  his  observations 
in  his  report  to  the  government  in  the  most  guarded  language,  for  while 
he  recognized  as  a  scientist  the  wealth  of  the  region,  he  was  conscious 
also  as  a  practical  man  of  the  hazard  of  its  development.  He  had  no 
mind   to   lure   men   to   their    ruin.      The   peninsula    in    those    days    was    a 

*  When  the  union  was  formed  the  northwest  territory,  embracing  the  present  states  of  Ohio, 
Indiana,  Illinois,  Wisconsin  and  Michigan  belonsed  to  Virginia.  Virginia  ceded  the  territory  to 
the  United  States  upon  the  conditions  made  in  the  ordinance  of  1787.  Among  these  conditions  was 
one  that  the  soutliern  boundary  line  of  Michigan  was  to  run  through  the  southerly  band  of  Lake 
Michigan  due  east  to  Lake  Erie  or  the  Maumce  river.  Consequently  the  territory  of  Michigan 
embraced  Toledo  and  a  ten-mile  strip  south  of  the  present  boundary  of  the  state.  When  Michigan 
formed  its  constitt'.tion  it  fixed  the  same  boundaries  that  it  had  as  a  territory,  established  by  the 
ordinance  of  1787.  Ohio  then  demanded  that  Michigan  move  her  southern  boundary  ten  miles 
further  north  that  she  might  have  the  Maumee  Bay  and  opposed  Michigan's  admission  to  the  union 
until  this  was  done.  Hence  the  Toledo  war,  Michigan's  troops  actvially  marching  in  arms  to  the 
Ohio  border  to  take  forcible  possession  of  this  strip.  The  upper  peninsula  had  been  set  off  to  the 
territory  of  Wisconsin.  To  gratify  Ohio,  avoid  a  military  conflict  and  to  give  the  Michigan  senators 
(Norvell  and  Lyon)  and  its  representative  (Crary)  their  seats  Congress  provided  for  a  convention 
of  delegates  to  be  duly  elected  by  the  people  of  Michigan,  to  which  it  submitted  the  question  of 
giving  to  Ohio  the  coveted  ten-mile  strip  and  of  receiving  the  upper  peninsula  in  exchange.  The 
convention  assembled  at  Ann  Arbor  and  emphatically  rejected  this  proposition.  The  upper  peninsula, 
certainly  the  most  valuable  portion  of  the  state  in  natural  wealth,  was  terra  incognita  at  the  time 
and  was  considered  of  little  or  no  value.  Besides  the  loss  of  the  harbor  of  Lake  Erie  (Maumee 
Bay),  the  convention  deemed  that  a  surrender  to  the  demands  of  Ohio  would  be  a  palpable  violation 
of  the  ordinance  of  1787.  The  action  of  this  legal  convention  was  considered  final.  A  few 
politicians,  however,  who  were  impatient  to  fill  the  offices  to  which  they  had  been  elected  under  the 
state  constitution  issued  without  legal  authority  a  call  for  a  popular  election  of  delegates  to  another 
convention  to  act  upon  the  proposition  of  Congress.  There  were  no  legal  boards  of  election  then 
and  the  qv.alifications  of  electors  was  but  little  regarded.  Consequently  the  vote  was  large  and 
nearly  all  one  way  in  favor  of  submission.  The  state  rights  people,  or  those  opposed  to  submission, 
regarded  this  election  as  of  no  validity  but  the  persons  chosen  at  this  election  met  and  declared 
that  the  people  of  Michigan  had  repented  of  their  previous  action  and  humbly  accepted  the  proposi- 
tion made  by  Congress.  Upon  this  action  Michigan  was  admitted  into  the  union  and  the  upper 
peninsula   was  thus  annexed  to  the  state. 


EARLY   HISTORY    OF    LAKE    SUPERIOR 


veritable  Klondike  fnim  the  standpoint  of  inaccessibility.  His  report  of 
1841  was  careful,  painstaking  and  conservative,  but  notwithstanding  its 
tone  men  fiocked  to  the  reo-ion  bv  thousands.  Dr.  Houghton  had  foreseen 
this  condition  and  his  heart  was  wrung  for  them,  for  he  knew  that  only 
a  tithe  could  possibly  hope  to  win  success.  Indeed  claims  were  abandoned 
as  soon  as  they  were  located  and  in  a  few  years  most  of  the  prospectors 
had  left  the  country.  Dr.  Houghton's  report  was  largely  devoted  to 
copper.  Of  iron  he  makes  only  the  merest  mention,  which  is  not  surprising 
as  his  investigations  were  confined  to  the  shore  of  the  lake  and  none  of 
the  iron  deposits  come  within  seven  miles  of  it.  Dr.  Houghton  was  an 
extraordinary  man  of  fine  moral  and  mental  fiber.  His  geological  observa- 
tions of  the  region  are  today  universally  accepted,  though  it  took  the 
later  generation  of  geologists  several  years  to  come  to  his  conclusions. 
The  rocks  are  very  old.  They  precede  organic  life.  They  are  the  result 
of  a  great  cataclysm  and  however  deep  one  descends  into  the  earth  there  is 
no  heat. 

Houghton's  career,  brief  as  it  was,  was 
most  remarkable.  He  was  born  in  Troy,  N. 
Y.,  Sept.  21,  1809,  and  graduated  at  the  Van 
Rensselaer  school  in  that  city  in  1828.  He 
was  soon  afterwards  appointed  assistant  pro- 
fessor of  chemistry  and  natural  history  in  that 
institution  then  under  the  control  of  Profes- 
sor Eaton.  In  1830  Gen.  Cass  and  Major 
AMiiting.  of  Detroit,  applied  to  Prof.  Eaton 
for  a  person  qualified  to  deliver  a  course  of 
public  lectures  on  chemistry  and  geologv. 
Eaton  opened  a  door  of  his  laboratory  and 
summoned  Houghton,  calling  him  by  the  fa- 
miliar name  Douglas.  He  was  so  young  and 
slight  that  they  could  hardly  believe  Prof. 
Eaton  to  be  in  earnest.  Young  Houghton  did 
not  hesitate,  however.  He  accepted  the  invitation  and  landed  in  Detroit  with 
exactly  ten  cents  in  money.  The  lectures  were  so  popular  that  he  w^as  per- 
suaded to  make  Michigan  his  home.  Small  in  person,  a  mere  boy  in  appear- 
ance, shy  and  awkward  though  brave  and  resolute,  it  is  remarkable  that  he 
should  so  quickly  have  won  the  esteem  of  the  distinguished  men  of  the  state. 
He  had  hardly  opened  his  office  in  Detroit  when  he  was  appointed  by  the 


DR.    DOUGLAS    HOUGHTON. 

From   a    daguerreotype. 


6  THE    HONORABLE    PETER    WHITE 

secretary  of  war  as  surgeon  and  botanist  to  Schoolcraft's  expedition  to 
the  source  of  the  Mississippi.  Within  a  period  of  fifteen  years  he  had 
been  elected  mayor  of  Detroit  for  two  terms  in  succession  by  large  ma- 
jorities. He  was  tendered  the  presidency  of  the  ]\Iichigan  university  before 
he  was  thirty  years  old. 

The  work  with  which  this  sketch  is  associated  began  in  1837  when 
he  was  appointed  state  geologist.  It  was  he,  in  fact,  who  nurtured  the 
scheme  for  a  geological  survey  of  Michigan.  He  proposed  to  himself 
a  scheme  A\hich  would  include  four  departments,  namely,  geology,  zool- 
ogy, botany  and  topography,  each  having  an  official  head  and  all  united 
under  the  general  guidance  of  the  state  geologist.  The  first  thing  was 
to  bring  the  matter  before  the  legislature  and  get  its  approval.  Michigan 
had  just  entered  the  great  family  of  states.  She  was  inexperienced  in 
public  work  of  all  kinds.  Governor  Mason  on  the  passing  of  the  law 
establishing  a  geological  department  appointed  Houghton  as  state  geologist. 
From  boyhood  Houghton's  passion  had  been  the  study  of  the  natural 
sciences.  He  explored  the  woods  and  rocky  gorges  as  a  boy.  He  had 
made  discoveries  before  he  was  ten  years  old.  All  through  his  life  he 
looked  on  science  as  the  great  object  of  his  devotion.  It  has  been  said 
that  if  any  man  ever  lived  who  was  not  merely  an  indoor  geologist  that 
man  was  Dr.  Houghton.  His  enthusiasm  for  his  scientific  and  professional 
pursuits  was  great.  It  was  like  a  steady  fire  strengthened  and  deepened 
by  the  fuel  of  new  ideas  constantly  thrown  on  the  flame.  Houghton  had 
no  great  gift  of  persuasion ;  he  was  no  coiner  of  phrases.  Often  he  would 
stumble  to  find  the  word  he  wanted,  a  habit  that  would  make  his  con- 
versation h.alting  were  it  not  for  the  fine  vigor  he  displayed  in  expressing 
his  thought.  His  social  qualities  were  singularly  happy.  He  could  not 
drop  into  a  store  or  office  without  being  surrounded  by  a  group  of 
admiring  friends.  A  young  man  himself  he  was  always  associated  with 
the  fresh  leading  spirits  of  the  new  state  of  Michigan.  The  young  men 
about  him  were  swayed  by  his  ardent  temperament  and  his  genius.  He 
was  always  a  leader,  and  had  he  lived  (he  was  only  thirty-six  at  the 
time  of  his  death)  would  undoubtedly  have  risen  high  in  the  councils 
of  the  nation.  The  followingf  account  from  an  eve  witness  is  well  worth 
repeating : 

"Houghton — his  diminutive  stature,  his  keen  blue  eyes,  his  quick 
and  nervous  motions,  the  strong  sense  of  energy  of  his  words  when 
dealing  with  matters  of  science,  and  his  undaunted  perseverance  when 
carrying;  out  his  designs,  made  him   a  notable  figure.     He  was  no  carpet 


EARLY    PIISTORY    OF   LAKE  SUPERIOR  7 

kniglit  of  science  and  on  his  geological  excursions  never  flinched  from 
hard  work  and  exposure.  On  these  occasions  he  usually  wore  a  suit  of 
gray,  the  coat  having  large  side  pockets  and  hanging  loosely  upon  his 
small  figure.  His  hands  and  feet  were  very  small  but  the  latter  were 
encased  in  boots  that  came  almost  to  his  thighs.  His  shockingly  bad  hat 
was  broad  brimmed  and  slouched  and  his  whole  appearance  was  that  of 
a  tattered  weather-worn  backwoodsman.  I  remember  meetinsf  him  a  few 
years  later  when  his  scientific  mind  and  energetic  body  had  unraveled  the 
mysteries  of  the  mineral  region  of  Lake  Superior  and  when  the  great 
fame  of  that  region  had  called  hosts  of  scientists  to  those  yet  wild  shores. 
He  had  just  landed  at  Eagle  river,  fresh  from  one  of  his  rough  expedi- 
tions, and  was  at  once  hailed  and  surrounded  by  men  known  over  the 
whole  v.'Orld  for  their  scientific  learning,  to  whose  figures  and  bearing  his 
own  presented  a  most  striking  contrast.  Yet  these  men  bowed  to  his 
superior  knowledge — sagacity  I  might  term  it — and  one  of  them  frankly 
said  in  my  hearing  that  the  rough-looking  doctor  carried  more  true  knowl- 
edge in  his  cranium  than  all  the  big  heads  put  together." 

It  was  on  the  night  of  Oct.  13.  1845,  that  Dr.  Houghton  lost  his 
life  on  Lake  Superior.  In  an  open  Mackinac  sailboat  he  was  making 
his  way  to  Eagle  river  over  the  rough  waters  of  that  lake.  They  were 
not  far  from  land.  A  snowstorm  prevailed  and  the  wind  was  blowing  a 
gale.  Houghton  was  anxious  to  get  round  a  point  of  rock,  a  low  broken 
promontory  that  shelved  to  a  considerable  distance  seaward.  He  encouraged 
his  men  to  brave  the  storm.  The  wind  was  increasing  in  fury  and  his 
companions  proposed  that  they  should  go  ashore  but  Houghton,  who  had 
great  confidence  in  his  own  skill,  urged  them  to  proceed.  Amid  the  in- 
creasing violence  of  the  gale  the  boat  was  capsized.  They  all  went  under 
for  a  moment.  Houghton  was  raised  from  the  water  by  his  trusty  com- 
panion and  friend,  Peter,  a  half-breed  who  had  been  with  him  for  several 
years,  and  was  advised  bv  him  to  cling  to  the  keel,  then  uppermost. 

"Never  mind  me,"  cried  Houghton,  ''go  ashore  if  you  can.  Be  sure 
that  I  will  get  ashore  well  enough." 

The  boat  was  soon  righted  and  all  were  at  their  oars  again,  but  the 
interval  was  of  brief  duration.  A  moment  later  a  wave  struck  them  with 
such  violence  that  the  boat,  receiving  the  blow  at  the  stern,  was  dashed 
over  endwise  and  all  were  thrown  again  into  the  water.  Two  of  the 
men  were  thrown  on  the  beach  in  a  helpless  condition,  but  Houghton 
was  drowned  and  his  body  was  not  found  until  the  following  spring. 


tr, 

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o 

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f- 

o 


\. 


^,' 


PART  TWO  OF  THE  PROLOGUE. 

THE  COMMERCIAL  DISCOVERY  OF  COPPER. 

""THE  fact  that  Dr.  Ploughton  made  no  mention  of  iron  in  his  report  is  sig- 
nificant in  that  it  shows  conckisively  that  the  Indians  could  have 
had  no  traditions  concerning  it.  This  is  important  because  it  brings  the 
discovery  of  iron  within  the  memory  of  men  now  hving  and  relieves  it 
of  conjecture  and  surmise.  Of  copper  it  is  impossible  to  determine  who 
first  discovered  it.  There  was  a  people  who  antedate  the  present  race 
of  Indians  that  knew  of  its  existence  and  had  uses  for  it.  These  people  lived 
and  died  long  before  Columbus  discovered  America,  and  while  the  Indians 
have  neither  legend  nor  tradition  concerning  them  the  fact  that  thev  lived 
is  proved  in  the  mute  testimony  of  nature.  Lying  about  some  of  the 
copper  mines  were  stone  hammers ;  underpinning  masses  of  native  copper 
were  wooden  props  in  sucli  a  state  of  decay  that  centuries  must  have  been 
required  in  the  pi'ocess ;  but,  above  all,  out  of  the  thrown-up  earth  of 
these  earlv  mines,  trees  had  o-rown,  had  fallen  and  decaved  and  had  o-rown 
again,  marking  the  centuries  with  the  rmgs  upon  them.  Of  this  crude  but 
industrious  race  the  Indians  had  no  knowledge. 

Mr.  Charles  Moore,  in  his  pamphlet  entitled  "The  Ontonagan  Copper  Boulder  in  the  Uni- 
ted   States    National    Museum,"    says: 

"During  the  winter  of  1847-48  Mr.  Samuel  O.  Knapp,  the  agent  of  the  Minnesota  mine, 
observed  on  the  present  location  of  that  mine  a  curious  depression  in  the  soil,  caused,  as  he 
conjectured,  by  the  disintegration  of  a  vein.  Following  up  these  indications  he  came  ujjon  a 
ravern,  the  home  of  several  porcupines.  On  clearing  out  the  rubbish  he  found  many  stone  ham- 
mers; and,  at  a  depth  of  18  ft.  he  came  upon  a  mass  of  native  copper  10  ft.  long',  3  ft.  wide, 
ind  nearly  2  ft.  thick.  Its  weight  was  more  than  six  tons.  This  mass  was  found  resting  upon 
billets  of  oak  supported  by  sleepers  of  the  same  wood;  there  were  three  courses  of  billets  and 
two  courses  of  sleepers.  The  wood  had  lost  all  its  consistency,  so  that  a  knife-blade  penetrated 
it  as  easily  as  if  it  had  been  peat;  but  the  earth  packed  about  the  copper  gave  that  a  firm  sup- 
port. By  means  of  the  cobwork  the  miners  had  raised  the  mass  about  5  ft.  or  something  less 
than  one-quarter  of  the  way  to  the  mouth  of  the  pit.  The  marks  of  fire  used  to  detach  the 
:opper  from  the  rock  showed  that  the  early  miners  were  acquainted  with  a  process  used  with 
eft'ect  by  their  successors.  This  fragment  had  been  pounded  until  every  projection  was  broken 
'jff,  and  then  had  been  left,  when  and  for  what  reason  is  still  unknown.  From  similar  pits  on 
the  same  location  came  10  carloads  of  ancient  hammers,  one  of  which  weighed  39J/2  lbs.  and  was 
fitted  w'ith  two  grooves  for  a  double  handle.  There  was  also  fovmd  a  copper  god,  a  copper 
ihisel  with  a  socket  in  which  were  the  remains  of  a  copper  handle,  and  fragments  of  wooden 
boiling  bowls.  .At  the  Mesnard  mine  in  1862  was  found  an  18-ton  boulder  that  the  'ancient 
•niners'    had   moved   48    ft.    from    its    original    bed." 


10  THE   HONORABLE   PETER   WHITE 

This  book  is  a  book  on  iron  ;  but  in  investigating  the  data  on  which 
to  found  it  much  interesting  information  concerning  the  early  discoveries 
of  copper  in  the  Lake  Superior  country  was  Hterally  dug  up  at  first 
hand  and  it  was  therefore  thought  best  to  briefly  mention  it  for  the  sake 
of  history. 

Among  those  who  were  attracted  by  Houghton's  reports  of  the  presence 
of  copper  in  the  Lake  Superior  countrv  was  John  Hays,  of  Cleveland, 
at  that  time  a  resident  of  Pittsburg.  It  is  to  John  Hays  that  the  credit 
belongs  of  making  the  first  discovery  of  copper  in  the  Lake  Superior 
country  in  a  commercial  sense.  He  had  been  engaged  in  the  drug  busi- 
ness for  a  number  of  years  at  Pittsburg  and  he  determined  to  vis^t  the 
Lake  Superior  region,  primarily  to  regain  his  health  and  incidentally  to  in- 
quire into  the  mineral  deposits.  Before  leaving  he  explained  his  purpose 
to  Dr.  C.  G.  Hussey  of  Pittsburg,  and  made  known  to  him  his  plans. 
Hussey  became  much  interested  in  the  trip  and  agreed  to  pay  half  of  Hays' 
expenses  and  to  furnish  half  of  the  funds  rec[uired  to  take  up  leases  of  min- 
eral lands.  Hays  accepted  the  proposition  and  left  Pittsburg  on  the  17th 
of  August,  1843,  ^o'"  Cleveland,  where  he  engaged  passage  on  the  steamer 
Chesapeake,  commanded  by  Captain  Howe,  for  Mackinac.  The  journey 
from  Mackinac  to  Sault  Ste.  Alarie  was  made  in  a  canoe.  At  the  Sault  he 
secured  passage  on  the  schooner  Algonquin,  commanded  by  Captain  John 
McKay,  and  reached  Copper  Harbor  in  good  season.  x\t  that  point  he 
made  the  accjuaintance  of  Mr.  Raymond,  a  speculator  from  Boston,  and 
also  the  government  mineral  agent,  General  Cunningham.  Raymond  had 
made  or  entered  three  leases,  one  at  Copper  Harbor,  one  at  Eagle  river 
and  the  third  at  Portage  Lake.  He  was  anxious  to  dispose  of  them,  and 
Havs,  being  convinced  upon  examination  that  they  were  valuable,  made 
an  offer  of  one  thousand  dollars  for  a  one-sixth  interest  in  the  three  leases 
on  condition  that  his  partner.  Dr.  Hussey,  would  ratify  the  proposition. 
This  Raymond  agreed  to.  Hays  then  returned  to  Pittsburg  and  reported 
the  affair  to  Hussey,  wdio  was  pleased  with  it  and  the  bargain  with  Ray- 
mond was  closed.  They  concluded,  however,  that  it  would  be  well  to  con- 
trol a  larger  interest  in  the  leases,  and  Hays  accordingly  called  upon 
Dr.  Charles  Avery,  Thomas  J\L  Howe  and  Dr.  Wm.  Pettit,  all  of  them  men 
of  means.  Hays  explained  the  venture  to  them  and  they  decided  at  once 
to  join  and  to  purchase  an  additional  three-sixths  interest  in  the  Raymond 
leases.  Hays  and  his  associates  then  owned  two-thirds  of  the  Raymond 
leases.  He  was  authorized  bv  his  partners  to  explore  the  lands  and  develop 
the  property.     In  the  spring  of  1844  he  left  Pittsburg  for  Lake  Superior 


THE   COM.AIERCIAL    DISCOVERY    OF    COPPER  11 

with  nine  men,  all  laborers,  except  ^Alfred  Rudolph,  a  geologist.  At 
Cleveland  he  chartered  the  schooner  Swan,  Captain  Dunbar,  to  carry  his 
supplies  to  Sault  Ste.  Marie.  At  the  Sault  he  chartered  the  schooner  Al- 
gonquin to  take  his  party  to  Copper  Harbor.  After  making  an  examina- 
tion at  Copj^er  Harbor  he  decided  to  put/lown  a  shaft  near  Lake  Fanny  Hoe, 
uncovering  a  vein  which  proved  to  be  the  celebrated  black  oxide,  yield- 
ing 86  per  cent  of  pure  copper.  Hays  built  two  houses,  one  for  storage 
purposes  and  the  other  for  the  men  to  live  in,  and  mined  altogether  some 
twenty-six  tons  of  the  black  oxide  during  the  season.  Dr.  Hussey  and 
other  members  of  the  company  from  Pittsburg  visited  the  mine  and  Hays 
gave  Hussev  a  memorandum  of  supplies  that  were  needed  to  carry  them 
through  the  winter,  which  Hussey  was  to  purchase  and  ship  before  the 
close  of  navigation.  Unfortunately,  they  were  not  purchased  in  time  to 
be  shipped  that  fall  and  Hays  was  compelled  to  rely  on  the  kindness  of 
Captain  Clary,  commandant  of  a  fort  which  the  government  had  constructed 
at  Copper  Harbor  in  1844  to  protect  the  settlers  from  the  Indians.  Clary 
furnished  the  supplies  required  and  they  were  returned  by  Hays  in  the 
spring.  Hays  always  maintained  that  had  it  not  been  for  this  succor  the 
companv  would  have  been  compelled  to  abandon  the  enterprise. 

In  the  forepart  of  September,  1844,  the  brig  John  Jacob  Astor,  com- 
manded by  Capt.  Ben.  Stanard,  received  at  the  Sault  a  cargo  of  supplies 
for  the  United  States  government,  part  to  be  unloaded  at  Copper  Harbor 
for  Captain  Clary  and  the  balance  at  La  Pointe.  She  arrived  at  Copper 
Harbor  on  the  night  of  Sept.  18,  1844,  and  came  to  anchor.  During  the 
night  a  violent  storm  sprang  up  and  it  was  impossible  for  the  crew  to  raise 
anchor  to  seek  shelter  under  the  lee  of  the  islands,  as  the  brig  would  have 
drifted  on  the  rocks  before  they  could  have  got  her  under  sufficient  head- 
way for  her  to  obev  the  helm,  and  they  were  therefore  compelled  to  weather 
it  out.  The  storm  increased  in  severity  and  on  the  night  of  Sept.  19  the 
large  anchor  gave  out  and  the  Astor  drifted  on  the  rocks.  Providence  was 
in  their  favor  to  some  extent,  as  they  were  able  to  save  the  cargo  and  their 
lives,  but  the  brig  was  totally  destroyed  by  the  pounding  which  she  received. 
The  loss  of  the  Astor  left  the  inhabitants  at  the  Sault  and  all  the  pros- 
pectors on  Lake  Superior  dependent  upon  the  little  schooner  Algonquin. 

About  the  middle  of  November  Hays  started  for  Eagle  river  in  a  small 
Mackinac  boat  with  George  Bailey  and  a  German  miner.  The  distance 
was  about  thirtv  miles.  They  were  out  but  a  short  time  when  one  of  those 
sudden  wind  squalls  struck  them,  which  made  it  almost  impossible  to  ef- 
fect a  landing,  but  they  were  finally  enabled  to  reach  Cat  Harbcr,  six  miles 


Q 
O 

o 

a! 


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CO 

O 

O 

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to 


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f-' 


JOHN    HAYS. 


14  THE    HONORABLE    PETER   WHITE 

from  Eagle  river.  The  country  was  a  wilderness  with  no  inhabitants 
except  a  remnant  of  the  Chippewa  tribe  of  Indians  scattered  throughout  the 
country  and  subsisting  on  game  and  fish.  From  Cat  Harbor  Hays  went 
to  EaMe  river  on  foot,  and  on  Nov.  i8,  1844.  discovered  the  ClifT  mine, 
famous  for  being  the  first  mine  ever  developed  in  the  Lake  Superior  coun- 
trv  and  the  first  that  yielded  pure  or  native  copper  in  the  United  States  if 
not  in  the  world.  This  was  considered  a  great  discovery  throughout  the 
whole  metallurgical  world.  In  England  the  discovery  could  not  be  cred- 
ited, because  the  British  Museum  contained  no  specimens  of  metallic  cop- 
per, and  it  was  not  known  to  exist.  Not  being  prepared  to  do  any  mining 
at  that  time  Hays  returned  to  Copper  Harbor.  It  was  the  middle  of  win- 
ter now,  but  Hays  felt  that  his  partners  should  be  informed  of  his  wonder- 
ful discovery.  It  was  important  also  that  the  vein  should  be  worked  ex- 
tensivelv  and  at  once.  He  endeavored  to  hire  two  men  to  carry  a  message 
to  Pittsburg  overland,  as  there  was  no  other  way  to  reach  that  point,  but 
it  was  impossible  to  get  anyone  to  undertake  the  trip.  It  was  a  great  dis- 
tance through  an  unknown  wilderness  and  no  white  person  had  ever  un- 
dertaken the  trip  on  foot.  Hays  finally  decided  to  go  himself  and  suc- 
ceeded in  hiring  two  Chippewa  Indians  to  accompany  him  as  guides  and 
to  carry  his  provisions  and  camp  utensils.  The  storv  of  this  trip,  the  first 
ever  made  by  a  white  man,  is  probably  best  told  in  Hays'  own  words  as  re- 
lated sliortly  before  his  death,"  as  follows : 

'T  obtained  these  Indian  guides  through  the  influence  of  Rev.  John 
Pitzel.  a  missionarv  located  at  L'Anse  Bay.  I  borrowed  of  Charles  Brush, 
a  sutler  at  Fort  W'ilkins,  one  hundred  dollars  to  enable  me  to  pay  the  In- 
dians and  other  expenses  of  the  trip.  On  the  i8th  of  December,  1844,  we 
left  the  mission  at  L'Anse  Bav  aufl  began  our  journey.  Before  we  started 
I  purcliascd  snow  shoes,  blankets,  flour,  pork,  tea  and  sugar,  cooking  uten- 
sils, two  axes,  also  a  gun  and  a  dog,  which  comprised  our  outfit.  After 
we  got  fairly  started,  we  made,  some  days,  very  good  time ;  then  again  it 
would  become  verv  fatiguing  on  account  of  having  to  cut  our  way  through 
the  underbrush.  At  night  we  would  clear  away  the  snow  for  our  camp, 
and  then  erect  a  wigwam,  as  the  Indians  call  it,  to  shelter  us  for  the  night. 
This  was  made  with  pine  boughs,  evergreen  and  bark.  Thus,  with  our 
blankets  and  a  large  camp  fire  made  of  birch  bark  and  logs,  we  managed 
to  obtain  a  good  night's  rest.     We  could  bake  sufficient  bread  at  night  to 

*|iihii  Hays  was  born  at  Zcliciuiplc,  IJutk-r  t'ounty,  Pa.,  on  Oct.  9,  1804.  and  died  in  Cleve- 
land in  Aprii,  1902,  ct  t'.ie  asc  of  iiiiicty-sevcn  years  and  seven  months.  Through  the  strange 
irony  of  fate  Hays  did  not  profit  in  the  riches  which  he  unearthed.  lie  added  millions  to  the 
iRcalth  of  the  world  but  none  of  it  clung  1o  his  own  fingers. 


THE    COMMERCIAL    DISCOVERY    OE  COPPER  15 

last  lis  through  the  day.  This,  with  our  tea  and  pork  and  occasional!)'  a 
rabbit  or  partridge,  which  we  shot,  enabled  us  to  perform  our  day's  jour- 
ney. In  ten  days  we  reached  Kitsen's  station  on  the  iMenominee  river,  in 
Wisconsin,  fifty  miles  from  its  mouth.  The  distance  traveled  was  about 
two  hundred  miles.  On  account  of  the  hard  country  we  had  to  go  through, 
the  underbrush  and  heavy  snow — often  on  our  hands  and  knees — and  cum- 
bersome snow  shoes,  made  it  impossible  for  us  to  make  more  than  twenty 
miles  in  a  day.  In  crossing  the  Menominee  river  we  unfortunately  lost 
our  dog.  The  ice  at  one  place  in  the  river  had  given  away,  and  he  jumped 
to  swim  across.  The  current  proved  too  strong  and  it  carried  him  under 
and  we  never  saw  him  again.  Before  reaching  Kitsen's  we  were  in  close 
quarters  for  provisions,  and  the  Indians  would  undoubtedly  have  killed 
the  dog  and  eaten  him  if  he  had  not  been  di  owned.  As  I  was  very  much 
attached  to  him  it  was  just  as  well,  perhaps,  that  he  was  drowned,  as  it 
would  have  made  us  all  feel  bad  to  kill  him. 

"Late  in  the  evening  of  that  day  we  struck  an  Indian  trail,  and  in  a 
short  time  we  heard  a  dog  bark,  and  we  knew  that  there  was  an  Indian 
camp  close  by,  which  we  soon  reached  at  the  Great  Falls  on  the  Menominee. 
The  Indians  at  the  camp  had  obtained  some  liquor  and  they  were  all  in- 
toxicated, and  my  Indians  were  somewhat  timid  in  approaching  the 
strangers,  for  the}'  were  certainly  a  hard  looking  lot  of  red  men.  But  we 
were  too  hungry  to  be  detained  through  fear,  and  we  finally  approached 
them  and  explained  to  them  our  condition,  and  they  invited  us  to  partake 
of  some  supper  with  them,  which  we  did  without  much  ceremony.  The 
meal  consisted  of  boiled  fish  (sturgeon)  and  flour  mixed  with  it,  making 
it  into  a  kind  of  soup  or  paste.  Although  not  very  palatable,  we  were  in 
prime  condition  to  do  it  justice.  I  purchased  of  them  some  flour,  venison 
and  fish,  and  left  them  next  morning  at  daybreak,  all  sound  asleep  from 
their  night's  debauch  Near  Kitsen's  we  found  a  family  from  the  state 
of  Maine.  Thev  were  engaged  in  hauling  saw  logs  for  a  saw  mill  they 
were  building.  They  insisted  upon  us  taking  dinner  with  them  and  we  ac- 
cepted the  invitation.  It  was  appreciated,  for  it  was  the  first  good  meal 
we  had  partaken  of  since  we  left  L'Anse  Bay.  The  Indian^  had  a  large 
quantity  of  fish  (sturgeon)  piled  up  like  cord  wood  and  frozen  hard. 
This  thev  had  to  depend  on  for  their  living  during  the  winter. 

"After  arriving  at  Kitsen's  Station,  which  is  an  agency  or  station  of 
the  American  Fur  Co.  (Kitsen  was  a  Canadian  and  was  married  to  an 
Indian  woman  ;  he  acted  as  agent  for  the  fur  company,  bought  furs  and 
did  some   farming)    I   settled  with  my  two  Indian  guides  and   paid  them, 


16  THE  HONORABLE  PETER  WHITE 

according-  to  agreement,  one  dollar  per  day  from  the  time  they  started  un- 
til thev  returned  to  their  homes  at  L'Anse.  I  also  made  a  contract  with 
them  to  meet  me  on  my  return  trip  in  March,  1845,  ^t  Kitsen's.  I  hired 
Mr.  Kitsen  to  carry  me  in  his  sleigh  to  Dr.  Hall's  saw  mill,  at  the  mouth 
of  the  Menominee  river,  on  Green  Bay.  Dr.  Hall  Avas  a  native  of  New 
York  state.  He  owned  a  large  saw  mill  at  this  point,  the  first  one  built 
on  the  river.  He  also  practiced  medicine  and  had  a  fine  family.  I  here 
met  the  mail  carrier,  Mr.  Johnson,  and  he  accompanied  me  as  far  as  the 
town  of  Xavarino,*  on  the  Fox  river,  at  the  head  of  Green  Bay.  I  intended 
to  make  our  next  stopping  place  at  Mr.  Powell's  at  the  mouth  of  the  Pcsh- 
tigo  river ;  but  night  overtook  us  and  we  were  looking  for  a  place  to 
camp  v/hen  we  heard  a  dog  bark,  and  after  tracing  it  up  we  came  to  an 
Indian  wigwam  and  found  it  occupied  by  an  Indian  and  his  family.  We 
remained  with  them  over  night  and  left  them  early  in  the  morning  and 
arrived  at  Powell's  about  9  o'clock  a.  m.  Powell  was  a  trader  and  farmed 
some.  We  remained  w-ith  him  that  day  and  I  hired  him  to  carry  me  to 
Green  Bay  in  his  sleigh,  a  distance  of  twenty-five  miles,  for  which  I  paid 
him  five  dollars.  Powell's  horse  had  been  used  for  racing  in  his  younger 
days  and  now  in  his  old  age  he  was  stifif  from  the  hard  usage,  and  we  had 
to  assist  him  to  get  up,  but  after  he  warmed  up  he  showed  his  mettle.  After 
we  arrived  at  Green  Bay  I  secured  the  services  of  a  Frenchman  to  carry  me 
to  Fond  du  Lac,  Wis.,  in  his  sleigh,  for  which  he  charged  me  four  dol- 
lars. This  town  at  that  time  was  small  and  consisted  of  the  following 
trades  or  business:  One  countrv  store,  keeping  a  little  of  everything;  one 
hotel,  one  liverv  stable,  a  blacksmith  shop  and  a  doctor.  From  here  to 
Milwaukee  I  was  compelled  to  foot  it;  from  there  to  Chicago  by  stage; 
then  to  Marshall,  Mich.,  also  by  stage;  from  this  town  to  Detroit  by  the 
Marshall  &  Detroit  railroad,  a  temporarv  affair,  made  of  strap  rail 

"At  Detroit  I  met  Dr.  Houghton,  the  state  geologist.  He  examined 
some  specimens  I  had  brought  with  me  and  was  astonished  as  well  as  in- 
terested in  the  discoveries  made.  I  took  a  stage  for  Pittsburg  by  way  of 
Cleveland,  and  reached  the  former  place  about  the  loth  of  January,  1845. 
I  immediatelv  reported  to  mv  associates,  Hussey,  Howe,  Avery  and  the 
others,  and  thev  were  surprised  and  much  elated  with  the  enterprises.  We 
then  settled  the  business  up  to  date,  the  whole  expenditure  amounting  to 
$1,854.  Our  investment  was  considered  a  very  valuable  one,  and  we  could 
have  sold  it  for  $250,000.     We  determined  to  push  the  development  of  the 

*There  was  no  such  town  of  Navarino.  Green  Bay  at  that  time  was  divided  into  two 
wards,  the  lower  one  being  Navarino  and  the  upper  one  Astor.  John  Jacob  Astor  owned  a  large 
portion    of   the   platted   portion    of   Astor. 


THE    COMMERCIAL    DISCOVERY    OF    COPPER  17 

property  as  far  as  possible.  I  remained  in  Pittsburg  about  six  weeks,  look- 
ing up  supplies  and  other  matters,  and  then  I  returned  to  Lake  Superior 
by  the  same  route,  the  Indians  meeting  me  as  agreed  upon  at  Kitsen's, 
near  the  mouth  of  the  Menominee.  We  reached  Copper  Harbor  on  the  2ist 
of  March." 

During  Hays"  absence  the  miners  at  Copper  Harbor  had  taken  out  and 
had  ready  for  shipment  the  twenty-six  tons  of  black  oxide  of  copper, 
which  was  sent  to  Roxbury  Chemical  Works,  Boston,  Mass.  It  yielded 
eighty-five  per  cent  of  pure  copper.  During  the  summer  of  1845  Hays 
explored  the  district  at  Eagle  river  and  found  a  large  mass  of  copper 
weighing  3.100  pounds  at  the  base  of  the  cliff.  Later  a  mass  of  native  cop- 
per weighing  eighty-one  tons  was  unearthed.  As  he  was  not  well  he  had 
the  company  relieve  him  and  Dr.  Pettit  of  Pittsburg,  took  charge  of  the 
property.  Hays  returned  to  Pittsburg,  and  remained  there  until  the  spring 
of  1846,  the  Cliff  mine  meanwhile  undergoing  development.  He  returned 
to  Eagle  river  in  1846  and  remained  there  until  the  spring  of  1847. 
Through  his  advice  Dr.  Edward  Jennings  was  employed  to  superintend 
the  mining  operations,  as  he  was  an  expert  in  mining  copper,  having  had 
large  experience  in  England.  As  the  Cliff  mine  was  running  a  large  amount 
of  copper  in  masses  from  one  ton  up  to  eighty-one  tons,  it  became  necessary 
to  erect  smelting  works,  so  as  to  put  it  in  marketable  condition,  that  is  to 
cast  it  into  ingots  weighing  ten  pounds,  more  or  less.  For  this  purpose 
Hays  went  to  England  to  examine  English  furnaces,  carrying  with  him 
samples  of  copper,  one  piece  weighing  3,852  pounds,  and  others  from  one 
up  to  ten  pounds.  The  large  piece  was  sold  to  King's  College  on  the 
Strand  and  the  smaller  specimens  were  given  to  the  British  Museum. 
There  were  no  furnaces  in  England,  however,  for  smelting  mass  copper. 
The  English  obtained  their  copper  from  ore  combined  with  sulphur  known 
as  sulphate  of  copper,  which  had  to  be  crushed  and  then  washed,  yielding 
but  five  per  cent  of  copper.  The  specimens  that  Hays  left  in  England 
created  great  excitement  among  scientific  men,  especially  geologists,  and 
did  much  to  enlist  the  interest  of  capitalists  in  the  wonderful  mineral  re- 
gion. 

Hays  returned  to  the  United  States  determined  to  construct  a  furnace 
on  a  plan  of  his  own,  provided  that  his  associates  were  satisfied  with  it. 
The  company  at  once  decided  to  construct  the  furnace  and  it  was  com- 
pleted at  Pittsburg  during  the  year  1848.  The  top  was  removed  by  a  crane 
and  masses  of  copper  hoisted  in  by  the  same  means.  It  proved  to  be  a 
great  success.     Hays  superintended  the  work  for  the  first  eighteen  months. 


18  THE   HONORABLE   PETER   WHITE 

The  first  batcli  of  ingots  was  sold  to  Robert  Fulton  of  Pittsburg.  The 
first  sheet  copper  that  was  rolled  west  of  the  Alleghanies  was  rolled  from 
one  of  Hays'  ingots  at  Shoenberger's  mill  and  by  Mr.  Lutton  and  his  son, 
Wm.  H.  Lutton. 

The  Cliff  mine  proved  a  profitable  investment,  earning  for  its  own- 
ers, the  Pittsburg  &  Boston  Mining  Co.,  in  a  period  of  ten  years,  from 
1846  to  1856,  $3,858,000  upon  an  original  assessment  of  $108,000. 


PART  THREE  OF  THE  PROLOGUE. 


THE  DISCOVERY  OF  IRON  ORE. 


""The  original  discoverer  of  copper  in 
the  Lake  Superior  country  was  some 
member  of  a  prehistoric  race.  But  with 
iron  the  story  is  different.  It  is  only  a 
little  while  ago.  Iron  was  first  discov- 
ered by  William  A.  Burt,  United  States 
deputy  surveyor,  and  party  who  were 
engaged  in  surveying  the  upper  penin- 
sula. In  the  party  were  William  Ives, 
compassman ;  Jacob  Houghton,  barom- 
eterman;  H.  Mellen,  R.  S.  Mellen, 
James  King  and  two  Indians  named 
John  Taylor  and  Michael  Doner.  While 
running  the  east  line  of  township  47 
north,  range  27  west,  they  observed  on 
Sept.  19,  1844,  by  means  of  the  solar 
compass  the  most  remarkable  variations 
in  the  direction  of  the  needle.  These 
fluctuations  greatly  excited  Mr.  Burt, 
who  was  the  inventor  of  the  solar  com- 
pass, and  when  the  compass  indicated  a  variation  of  87  degrees  he  could  con- 
tain himself  no  longer. 

"Boys,"  said  he,  "look  around  and  see  what  you  can  find." 
Each  member  of  the  party  began  an  independent  search  and  found 
outcroppings  of  iron  ore  in  great  abundance.  In  fact  they  could  not  fail 
to  find  it,  for  a  mere  rip  of  the  sod  revealed  the  ore.  Mr.  Burt  was  well 
advanced  in  life  and  was  much  more  interested  in  the  performance  of  his 
compass  than  he  was  in  the  deposits  of  ore  themselves.* 

*  Win.  A.  Burt  was  born  in  \\'orcester  county,  Massachusetts,  June  13,  1792.  In  1792  he 
removed  with  his  parents.  Alvin  and  Wealthy  Austin  B'lrt,  to  Montgomery  county,  New  York. 
He    had   no   advantage   of    public    schools,    but    at    14    years    of   age    had    mastered   surveying   as   then 


WILI,IAM   A.    BURT. 


20  THE   HONORABLE   PETER  WHITE 

"How  conld  thev  survey  this  country  without  my  compass,"  he  ex- 
claimed, and  after  the  manner  of  an  old  man,  he  repeated  the  remark  a  score 
of  times. 

It  is  w^orthy  of  note  that  no  member  of  this  party  of  surveyors  made 
any  effort  to  profit  by  the  discovery.  It  does  not  seem  to  have  occurred 
to  any  of  them  to  preempt  one  of  the  locations.  They  noted  in  their  re- 
port and  on  their  maps  that  iron  existed — and  that  was  all.  The  cause  of 
this  indifiference  doubtless  lay  in  the  knowledge  of  the  almost  insuperable 
obstacles  which  would  have  to  be  overcome  before   the   iron  could  reach 

known,  and  had  gained  much  knowledge  of  astronomy.  He  worked  on  the  farm  during  the  day, 
and,  like  the  proverbial  pioneer,  studied  at  night  by  the  aid  of  a  pine  knot.  At  17  years  of  age 
he  removed  with  his  father's  family  to  Erie  county.  New  York,  which  was  then  in  the  far  west. 
He  saw  service  in  the  war  of  1812,  and  in  1813  he  married  Phoebe  Cole.  In  1817  he  made  a 
journey  as  far  west  as  St.  Louis,  doing  odd  iobs  of  surveying  along  the  route.  In  1822  he 
removed  to  Michigan  and  first  built  a  saw  mill  at  Auburn,  Oakland  county.  He  endeavored  to  get 
employment  as  a  government  surveyor,  but  failing  in  this,  bought  a  tract  in  Washington,  INIacomb 
county,    in   1824. 

From  1824  to  1832  he  was  engaged  in  mill  building  and  local  surveying.  In  1826  and  1827 
he  was  a  member  of  the  Michigan  Territorial  Council  and  did  much  towards  inaugurating  that 
great  improvement,  the  St.  INIary's  i-alls  Ship  Canal.  From  1831  to  1834  he  was  county  surveyor 
of    Macomb   county. 

In  1833  the  United  States  surveyor  general  appointed  him  United  States  deputy  surveyor 
for  the  district  northwest  of  the  Ohio.  He  at  once  went  into  his  field  northward  of  ¥t.  Gratiot, 
on  the  borders  of  Lake  Huron. 

Mr.  Burt  found,  what  all  surveyors  had  previously  discovered,  that  the  variations  of  the 
magnetic  needle  led  to  inaccuracy  in  surveys.  Mr.  Burt  did  what  other  surveyors  had  not  done — 
discovered  a  remedy  for  the  variations  of  the  needle.  He  tho'ight  that  if  the  local  disturbances 
which  led  to  these  variations  could  be  overcome,  surveyors  might  be  much  more  accurate  than 
they  had  been,  and  this  led,  at  length  to  the  invention  of  the  solar  compass  by  which  the  courses 
and  distances  are  controlled  by  influences   far  beyond  the   reach   of   terrestrial    disturbances. 

In  1835  he  exhibited  a  model  of  the  compass  to  a  committee  of  the  Franklin  Institute,  at 
Philadelphia,  the  first  scientific  body  of  this  country,  and  was  granted  a  Scott's  legacy  medal.  On 
Dec.  14,  1840.  he  exhibited  to  the  same  institute  a  perfect  solar  compass,  for  which  he  received 
the  highest  commendation.  In  1847  he  wrote  a  manual  for  the  use  of  the  solar  compass.  In  1851 
he  visited  the  World's  Fair  in  London  and  received  a  prize  medal  for  his  solar  compass  from 
Prince   Albert,  president  of  the  Royal   Commission. 

The  solar  compass  is  an  astronomical  instrument.  The  sun  is  utilized  in  working  with  it, 
although  surveyors  well  versed  in  astronomical  science  sometimes  use  other  planets.  In  the  use 
of  the  common  surveyor's  compass  the  only  means  available  to  determine  the  azimuth,  or  the  true 
meridian,  is  an  observation  of  the  transit,  or  the  elongation  of  the  pole  star  at  night,  which  can 
be  done  only  on  a  clear  night.  Surveyors  often,  to  secure  good  work,  were  compelled  to  cut  down 
trees   and    erect    stakes,    which    was   very    laborious    and    expensive. 

Various  causes  led  to  the  deflection  of  the  magnetic  needle.  Among  them  are  local  causes, 
hid  in  the  earth's  crust,  heat  and  cold,  thunderstorms  and  the  heat  or  magnetism  of  the  body  of 
the  operator.  Often  the  pivot  on  which  the  needle  swings  would  become  blunt  and  the  needle 
not  traverse  twice  alike.  The  solar  compass  is  independent  of  the  needle  although  it  is  constructed 
with  one  and  its  use  is  invaluable  in  magnetic  forces  and  in  recording  the  variations  from  the 
true  meridian.  It  was  said  of  Burt's  compass  that  it  seized  a  sunbeam  as  it  fell  and  compelled 
it  to  point  out  the  magnetism  and  poles  of  the  earth,  and  thus  determine  the  latitude,  true  meridian, 
azimuth,  variation  of  the  magnetic  needle  and  local  time,  a  mode  of  surveying  independent  of  the 
magnetic  needle. 

Mr.  Burt  possessed  inventive  faculties  of  the  highest  order.  His  last  invention  was  the 
Equatorial  Sextant,  though  he  did  not  live  to  perfect  this  instrument.  lie  also  invented  the  first 
typewriter.     He  died  at  his   home  in   Detroit,   August    18,    1858. 


THE    DISCOVERY    OF    IRON  ORE 


21 


its  market.     However  it  is  strange  that  none  of  them  recognized  the  fact 
that  time  was  the  only  asset  required  to  make  them  wealthy. 

The  work  which  William  Ives  did  upon  this  survey  was  unusually  faith- 
ful and  historically  important.  He  performed  it  with  the  utmost  care  and 
diligence,  and  indeed  overcame  many  physical  obstacles  which  would  have 
daunted  a  less  courageous  spirit.  At  one  time,  being  wounded  badly  in 
one  foot,  the  party  had  to  leave  him  at  the  mouth  of  the  Carp  river.  The 
next  day  Ives  appeared  among  them  at  what  is  now  Negaunee,  having 
traveled    the    entire    distance    upon    a    pair   of    improvised    crutches.      Any 


THE    SITE   OF   THE   OLD  JACKSON    FORGE   ON    THE    CARP    RIVER,    NEAR    NEGAUNEE,    SHOWING    RE- 
MAINS  OF   OLD  DAM  FORGE,   BUILT   IN    1847-48. 

one  who  has  traveled  over  the  face  of  this  rugged  country  will  appreciate 
the  heroism  of  this  performance. 

It  is  a  singular  circumstance  that  the  knowledge  of  the  discovery, 
made  by  the  surveyors,  while  duly  recorded  in  their  reports,  seems  not  to 
have  been  known  bv  any  one  who  could  profit  by  the  information.  They  re- 
lated the  discoverv  to  the  Indians  whom  they  met,  but  it  seems  not  to  have 


22 


THE   HONORABLE   PETER   WHITE 


reached  the  ears  of  any  white  man.  Among  those  to  whom  they  made  men- 
tion of  the  existence  of  iron'  was  Louis  Nolan,  a  half-breed,  living  at  Sault 
Ste.  Marie,  and  an  old  Indian  chief  named  Madjigijig,  whose  wigwam  was 
at  the  mouth  of  the  Carp  river. 

In  the  spring  of  1845  P.  M.  Everett,* 
of  Jackson,  Mich.,  excited  by  the  reports 
of  the  existence  of  copper  and  silver  in 
the  Lake  Superior  region,  made  a  jour- 
ney into  that  country  accompanied  by 
four  men.  When  he  reached  Sault  Ste. 
Marie  he  met  Louis  Nolan,  who  related 
to  him  the  discovery  of  the  iron  deposits 
l)y  the  surveyors  and  volunteered  to  show 
him  the  way.  Everett  had  not  heard 
of  iron,  Imt  accepted  the  offer  of  Nolan 
and  employed  him  as  a  guide.  Nolan 
was  a  physical  giant,  as  hard  as  a  rock, 
and  proved  an  invaluable  servant.  Lie 
escorted  the  party  as  far  as  Teal  Lake, 
but  v.as  unab.e  to  locate  the  iron  de- 
posits. Everett  then  started  for 
Copper  Harbor,  but  on  the  jour- 
ney thither  fortunately  fell  in  with 
Madjigijig,  the  old  Indian  chief,  to  whom  they  related  their  fruitless 
search.  He  at  once  undertook  to  show  them  the  deposits  and  piloted  them 
directly  to  the  Jackson  Mountain  and  then  to  the  Cleveland  Mountain. 
These  terms,  Jackson  and  Cleveland,  are  used  because  it  was  by  these 
names  that  the  deposits  were  later  known.  Mad jigi jig's  superstition  re- 
garding the  deposits  was  such  that  he  would  not  approach  them  directly, 
so  that  the  actual  discovery  of  the  Jackson  deposit  was  made  by  two  mem- 
bers of  Mr.  Everett's  party — S.  T.  Carr  and  E.  S.  Rockwell.  In  reward 
for  the  services  of  the  Indian  on  this  occasion  the  officers  of  the  Jackson 
company  subsequently  gave  him  a  written  stipulation,  of  which  the  follow- 
ing is   a   copy : 

*Phi!o  M.  Everc-tt  was  born  at  Winchester,  Conn.,  Oct.  21,  1807.  He  settled  in  Jackson, 
Mich.,  bnt  removed  his  family  to  the  H[)per  peninsula  in  1848.  He  appears  not  to  have  profited 
personally  by  his  great  discovery,  for  a  few  years  later  he  is  to  be  found  employed  in  quarrying 
ore  for  others  from  the  very  mines  which  he  had  discovered.  He  died  at  Marquette,  Sept. 
37,    1892. 


PHILO    M.    EVERETT. 


THE    DISCOVERY    OF    IRON  ORE  23 

"River  du  Mort,  May  30,  1846. 

'"This  may  certify  that  in  consideration  of  the  services  rendered  by 
Madjigijig,  a  Chippeway  Indian,  in  hunting  ores  of  location  No.  593  of  the 
Jackson  Mining  Co.,  that  he  is  entitled  to  twelve  undivided  one-hundredths 
part  of  the  interest  of  said  mining  company  in  said  location  No. 

"A.  V.  Berry,  Superintendent, 
"F.  W.  KiRTLAND,  Secretary." 

The  agreement  on  the  part  of  the  company  was  never  fulfilled  and 
Madjigijig  finally  died  in  poverty.  However,  it  is  true  that  none  of  the 
original  members  of  the  Jackson  Mining  Co.  got  anything  out  of  their 
holdings,  and  Madjigijig  therefore  fared  upon  an  equal  basis  with  them. 
But  this  is  overstepping  the  development  of  the  story. 

Everett's  party  had  a  number  of  permits  in  their  possession,  issued  by 
the  secretary  of  war,  to  preempt  mineral  locations,  and  one  of  them,  made 
out  to  James  Ganson,  was  used  upon  the  Jackson  location.*  The  party  then 
gathered  up  a  little  of  the  ore  and  returned  to  Jackson,  Mich., 
with  it.  The  following"  spring  another  expedition  was  fitted  out  by 
the  Everett  party,  consisting  of  F.  W.  Kirtland,  E.  S.  Rock- 
well. \\'.  H.  ]\Iunroe  and  A.  V.  Berry,  to  visit  the  Jackson  location. 
They  built  a  house  upon  it  and  returned  to  the  mouth  of  the  Carp  river 
with  300  pounds  of  ore  upon  their  backs.  Some  of  the  party  remained  be- 
hind to  keep  possession  of  the  location,  but  Berry  journeyed  on  to  the  Sault 
with  the  ore.  At  the  Sault  he  met  J.  Lang  Cassels  of  Cleveland,  a  noted 
mineralogist,  who  had  been  sent  into  the  peninsula  by  a  number  of  Cleveland 
gentlemen  to  report  upon  its  mineral  resources.  These  gentlemen  were  anx- 
ious to  develop  the  mines,  should  any  of  promise  be  found.  Berry,  learning 
that  the  men  whom  Cassels  represented  were  of  the  highest  integrity,  made 
known  the  Cleveland  location  to  him,  on  condition  that  the  expenses  of  keep- 
ing possession  and  making  roads  should  be  borne  jointly.  Dr.  Cassels  took 
Berry's  canoe,  visited  the  location  and  secured  it  by  a  permit.     Berry  pro- 

*  Air.  Everett  in  a  letter  to  Capt.  G:  D.  Johnson,  dated  lackson,  Mich.,  Nov.  10,  1845,  says: 
"I  left  here  on  July  23  last  and  was  gone  until  October  24.  I  had  considerable  difficulty 
in  getting  anyone  to  join  me  in  the  enterorise  but  I  at  last  succeeded  in  forming  a  company  of 
thirteen.  I  was  appointed  treasurer  and  agent  to  explore  and  make  locations,  for  which  last 
purpose  we  had  secin-ed  seven  permits  from  the  secretary  of  war.  I  t6ok  four  men  with  me 
from  Jackson  and  hired  a  guide  at  the  Sault,  where  I  bought  a  boat  and  coasted  up  the  lake  to 
Copper  Harbor,  which  is  over  300  miles  from  Sault  Ste.  Marie.  There  are  no  white  men  on 
Lake  Superior  except  those  who  go  there  for  mining  purposes.  W^e  incurred  many  dangers  and 
hardships.  We  made  several  locations,  one  of  which  we  called  Iron  at  the  time.  It  is  a  moun- 
tain of  solid  iron  ore,  ISO  feet  high.  The  ore  looks  as  bright  as  a  bar  of  iron  just  broken. 
Since  coming  home  we  have  had  some  of  it  smelted  and  find  it  produced  iron  and  something 
resembling  gold — some  say  it  is  gold  and  copper.  Our  location  is  one  mile  square  and  we  shall 
send  a  company  of  men  up  in  the  spring  to  begin  operations.  Our  company  is  called  the  Jackson 
Aiming   Co." 


24 


THE  HONORABLE  PETER  WHITE 


ceeded  to  Jackson,  Mich.,  with  his  ore,  where  he  made  two  attempts  to  smelt 
it  in  a  cupola  furnace  and  failed.  Some  of  the  ore  was  then  taken  to  Mr. 
Olds  of  Cucush  Prairie,  who  succeeded  in  making  a  fine  bar  of  iron  from  it  in 
a  blacksmith's  fire,  the  first  iron  ever  made  from  Lake  Superior  ore. 

In  the  summer  of  1847  the  Jackson 
company  constructed  a  forge  on  Carp 
river,  about  three  miles  from  the  mine, 
and  on  Feb.  10,  1848,  the  first  iron  ever 
made  in  the  Lake  Superior  region  was 
made  in  this  forge  by  Ariel  N.  Barney. 
A  month  later  the  forge  went  out  of 
commission,  being  carried  away  by  a 
freshet.  Mr.  Everett  returned  in  the 
summer  of  1848,  repaired  the  dam  and 
resumed  the  manufacture  of  blooms. 
The  first  iron  made  was  sold  to  E.  B. 
Ward,  who  used  it  in  the  walking  beam 
of  the  steamer  Ocean.  The  forge  had 
four  fires,  from  each  of  which  a  lump 
was  taken  every  six  hours,  which  was 
placed  under  the  hammer  and  forged 
into  blooms  four  inches  square  and 
two  feet  in  length.  The  daily  product 
was  about  six  tons,  requiring  two  teams  of  six  horses  each  to  convey  the 
blooms  to  Marquette,  which  lay  ten  miles  away.  The  roads  were  of  unvary- 
ing horror  and  breakdowns  were  frequent.  The  same  difficulty  which  at- 
tended the  getting  of  the  blooms  to  port  attended  the  getting  of  supplies  to 
the  forge — the  ore  and  charcoal.  After  struggling  with  insufficient  power, 
for  some  time  the  Carp  river  ran  pretty  low,  with  the  frightful  grades  and 
the  imspeakably  bad  roads,  the  forge  met  the  death  to  which  it  was  born. 

Meanwhile  there  lived  at  Mackinaw  a  man  of  extraordinary  qualities, 
Avho  was  destined  to  give  the  central  figure  of  this  story  a  prodigious  start 
in  life.  His  name  was  Robert  J.  Graveraet.  Of  him  it  might  be  said  as 
Hamlet  said  of  his  father : 

The  front  of  Jove  himself — 

An   eye   like   Mars,   to   threaten   and   command, 

A  station  like  the  herald  Mercury, 

New  lighted  on  a  heaven-kissing  hill, 

A  combination   and  a   form   indeed 

Whereon  each  good  did  seem  to  set  his  seal 

To  o'ive  the  world  assurance  of  a  man. 


t 

r^ 

'*  "■          ■  '-^ 

^ 

w  ^kW"^  ' 

f 

^^T^^  *;.  ■■■   ^^3^^^^^^^^^^^^^r 

ARIEL    N.    BARNEY 


CHARLES   BAWGAM,    THE   CHIPPEWA    CHIEF. 


26 


THE  HONORABLE   PETER   WHITE 


Graveraet  was  not  an  ordinary  man.  He  would  be  singled  out  as  a 
natural  leader  among  thousands.  He  was  ambitious ;  he  had  a  will  of 
iron ;  he  had  the  faculty  of  winning  men ;  he  was  generous,  gentle,  but 
firm ;  he  had  great  intelligence  and  energy ;  and  his  mother  had 
given  him  a  constitution  that  did  not  know  the  meaning  of  fatigue.  For 
grace  of  bearing  and  beauty  of  proportion  Graveraet  challenged  instant 
admiration ;  and  moreover  his  muscles  were  of  steel.  This  man  recognized 
more  quickly  than  any  of  his  associates  the  immeasurable  value  of  the 
iron  deposits.  He  believed  that  he  had  a  claim  upon  two  of  the  most 
valuable  of  them — the  Cleveland  and  the  Lake  Superior.  The  Lake  Su- 
perior  was   a   third    outcropping   lying   not   far    from   the    Cleveland   mine 


V 


ORIGINAI.  JACKSON    MINE  SHOWING  STUMP  UNDER  WHICH  IRON  ORE  WAS  FIRST 

DISCOVERED   IN    LEFT  FOREGROUND. 


and  is  called  in  this  story  Lake  Superior  because  it  was  by  that  name  it 
subsec|uently  became  known.  Graveraet  induced  John  H.  Mann  and  Sam- 
uel Moody  to  undertake  their  preemption.  A  little  later  Dr.  Edmund  C. 
Rogers  went  upon  the  Lake  Superior  location  to  assist  in  obtaining  pre- 
emption rights.  How  sadly  Graveraet  was  mistaken  regarding  his  pri- 
ority of  right  will  later  be  revealed. 

In  the  summer  of  1848  Graveraet  met  at  Mackinaw  Dr.  Edward  Clark 
of   Worcester,    Mass.,    a    representative    of    Mr.    Waterman    A.    Fisher   of 


THE  discovp:ry  of  trox  ore 


27 


Worcester,  who  had  become  interested  in  the  accounts  of  the  mineral  wealth 
of  tlie  region  and  wdio  had  sent  Clark  to  investigate.  Fisher  was  the  pro- 
prietor of  a  cotton  factory  and  was  reputed  to  be  a  wealthy  man,  as  wealth 
was  accounted  in  those  days.  Clark,  like  all  the  rest,  was  on  the  copper 
scent  until  he  fell  in  with  Graveraet.  Graveraet  induced  him  to  stop  at 
Carp  river  to  inspect  the  iron  mines.  He  took  him  to  the  Cleveland  and 
Lake  Superior  locations,  where  Moody,  Mann  and  Rogers  were  holding 
possession  and  showed  him  the  apparently  inexhaustible  deposits.  He  also 
took  him  to  the  Jackson  forge  and  gave  him  a  bloom  of  iron  and  some  ore. 
Clark  returned  to  \A"orcester,  where  the  iron  was  drawn  into  wire  at  a  fac- 
tory and  proved  most  excellent.  He  had  no  trouble  in  enlisting  Fisher'^ 
aid  in  developing  the  iron  mines.  Gra- 
veraet, too,  appeared  at  Worcester  in  the  k 
early  winter,  having  made  the  journey  V^- 
from  ]\Iarquette  to  Saginaw  on  snow 
shoes.  Graveraet  had  perfect  mastery 
over  his  physical  resources  and  a 
journey  of  this  character  was  as 
nothing  to  him.  Fisher  was  charmed 
with  the  man.  He  readily  assent- 
ed to  advance  the  necessary  capital, 
Graveraet  offering  as  security  leases 
from  jNIoody  and  J\Iann  upon  the 
Cleveland  location  and  from  Rogers  jackson  stump,  detail  of  prkced- 
upon   the    Lake    Superior   location.       A. 

R.  Harlow',  of  Worcester,  a  practical  mechanic,  was  also  induced  to  join 
forces,  and  he  accordingly  constructed  the  necessary  machinery  for  a  forge. 

In  ]\Iarch,  1849,  the  ^larquctte  Iron  Co.  was  organized,  consisting  of 
W.  A.  Fisher,  A.  R.  Harlow,  E.  B.  Clark  and  R.  J.  Graveraet.  It  was  de- 
cided to  ship  the  machinery  to  Marcjuette  as  soon  as  it  should  be  finished, 
and  Harlow  was  to  follow  immediately  thereafter.  Graveraet  returned  at 
once  to  Mackinac  Island  to  engage  a  number  of  workmen  for  the  mines, 
because  beyond  the  preemptors  and  a  few  copper  miners  there  were  no 
white  men  wdiatever  in  the  Lake  Superior  region.  He  had  no  difficulty 
in  enlisting  the  aid  of  nine  men  and  a  boy,  though  to  all  accounts  the  re- 
gion to  wdiich  he  invited  them  was  as  bleak  and  barren  as  the  proverbial 
wilderness.     It  is  with  the  boy  that  this  narrative  is  principally  concerned. 


28  THE  HONORABLE   PETER  WHITE 

In  April,  1849,  Graveraet  and  his  party  set  forth  for  the  promised 
land  in  the  little  steamer  Tecumseh.  At  the  Sault  they  transferred  their 
few  belongings  to  a  Mackinaw  barge,  and  after  eight  days  of  rowing,  towing, 
poling  and  sailing  reached  Carp  river  and  anchored  at  Indian  Town,  now 
known  as  Marquette.  The  first  person  to  greet  the  little  party  was  Charley 
Bawgam,'^'  a  full  blooded  Chippewa  Indian,  lithe  as  a  sapling  and  in  the 
prime  of  life.  He  was  the  son  of  Shauwano  of  Sault  Ste.  Marie,  the  last 
of  the  tribal  chiefs  to  make  his  headquarters  at  the  rapids.  Bawgam's 
sister,  Lisette,  had  married  at  Sault  Ste.  Marie,  John  Logan  Chipman, 
son  of  a  learned  judge  of  the  Supreme  Court  of  Michigan  and  himself 
elected  many  times  judge  of  the  Superior  Court  of  Detroit,  and  later  a 
member  of  Congress.  Bawgam  invited  the  party  into  his  cedar  wigwam 
and  his  wife  Charlotte,  who  was  the  daughter  of  the  Chippewa  chief, 
Madjigijig,  cooked  a  fine  supper  of  fresh  venison,  wild  duck,  geese,  fresh 
white  fish,  potatoes,  bread  and  coflr'ee.  The  place  at  which  the  little  party 
landed,  the  most  interesting  member  of  which  was  the  hero  of  the  present 
tale,  was  known  as   lackson's  landing,   a   name  which   would   indicate,   of 

*  Bawgam  died  in  January,  1903,  having  reached  the  age  of  nearly  100  years.  He  had  been 
for  fifty  years  one  of  the  characters  of  the  upper  peninsnla,  a  splendid  specimen  of  a  dying  race. 
It  was  said  of  him  that  if  he  had  had  the  advantages  of  education  he  would  have  rivaled  Daniel 
Webster  in  eloquence.  His  face  while  essentially  Indian  was  nevertheless  intellectual  in  cast. 
Bawgam  was  certainly  a  link  with  the  past.  One  little  story  will  suffice  to  illustrate  what  the 
life  of  the  Chippewas  was  before  the  white  man  came  to  inhabit  the  peninsula.  .\  colony  of  the 
Chippewas  lived  on  Presque  Isle  in  peace;  but  because  many  of  them  had  never  drawn  bow  or 
wielded  the  tomahaw-k  in  combat  they  were  called  squaws  and  were  sorely  taunted  by  a  tribe  of 
warlike  Indians  who  lived  a  considerable  distance  in  the  peninsula.  Their  insults  finally  became 
so  insufl'erable  that  a  band  of  the  Presque  Isle  Chippewas  was  organized  to  give  them  battle. 
Before  they  set  out  one  of  their  number  was  appointed  as  a  runner  whose  duty  it  was,  when  they 
approached  the  enemy,  to  station  himself  in  some  secluded  spot  where  he  might  watch  the  outcome 
of  the  combat  unobserved.  They  stole  upon  their  enemy  silently  and  began  the  fight  with  such 
s-uddenness  and  swiftness  that,  though  they  were  outnumbered  four  times  over,  they  slew  half  their 
foes  and  put  the  other  half  to  flight.  The  retreating  enemy,  however,  overcome  with  chagrin  at 
being  vanquished  by  so  slight  a  number  and  by  a  colony  which  they  had  hitherto  held  in  contempt, 
rallied  when  their  conquerors  supposed  them  to  be  in  full  retreat,  and  returned  to  the  attack  with 
great  fury.  They  slew  all,  except  the  runner,  who  witnessed  with  dismay  the  annihilation  of  his 
comrades  and  who  later  returned  to  tell  the  story  w-hich  established  forever  the  courage  of  the 
Presque  Isle  Chippewas  among  the  tribes  of  the  north.  The  runner  was  seen  by  Gov.  ■  Cass  soon 
after  his  return  and  the  governor  listened  with  much  interest  to  the  story  of  the  adventure. 

The  writer  saw  Bawgam  in  the  spring  of  1902.  He  was  living  with  his  wife  Charlotte  in 
1  little  cabin  on  Presque  Isle  which  had  been  built  for  him  by  Peter  White  and  Alfred  Kidder. 
The  framework  of  his  great  figure  was  erect,  gaunt  and  giant-like  and  indicates  clearly  what  a 
powerful  man  he  must  have  been.  He  spoke  of  the  blindness  which  had  come  upon  him  in  1899 
with  touching  simplicity.  His  large  grief  was  not  that  he  could  not  read  or  view  the  myriad 
delights  of  nature,  but  that  his  remaining  solace  had  been  taken  from  him.  "I  can  no  longer 
fish,"  said  he;  and  there  was  a  world  of  meaning  and  of  sorrow  in  the  words.  For  it '  bespoke 
the  great  love  of  outdoor  life  and  the  Indian's  inherent  right  to  wrest  his  living  from  nature.  In 
the  93rd  year  of  his  age  a  miserable  game  warden  put  the  old  man  in  durance  for  setting  a  sucker 
net  in  a  stream.  Justice  Creary,  however,  before  whom  the  old  Indian  was  taken,  had  a  strong 
enough   sense   of   the   fitness   of   things   to   peremptorily   order   his    release. 


THE  DISCOVERY   OF   IRON   ORE  29 

course,  that  they  were  not  the  first  white  persons  that  had  landed  there. 
In  fact  there  were  two  small  log  houses  at  the  point  and  five  or  six  birch 
bark  w^igw^ams,  the  whole  inhabited  by  Indians.  Beyond  this  small  clear- 
ing was  the  forest  and  thicket. 

The  next  morning  Graveraet  gave  each  member  a  pack  strap  and 
blanket  and  directed  him  to  use  his  own  discretion  in  putting  into  the 
pack  what  he  thought  he  could  carry  a  distance  of  twelve  miles  up  hill. 
Graveraet  put  into  his  own  pack  more  than  twice  the  quantity  that  any  other 
member  of  the  party  could  carry,  and  thus  equipped  the  caravan  started 
for  the  much-discussed  iron  hills.  When  they  had  journeyed  about  two 
miles  Graveraet  observed  that  one  member  of  the  party,  a  well-formed 
though  slender  lad,  was  staggering  under  his  load,  and  as  he  passed 
him  whisked  it  from  off  his  shoulders  and  threw  it  upon  his  own  much 
heavier  pack  as  though  it  had  been  a  feather.  Even  then  the  lad  had 
difficulty  in  keeping  up  with  Graveraet's  giant  strides.' 

"Jump  on  my  shoulders,  Peter,"  invited  the  leader. 

There  was  no  doubt  of  Graveraet's  ability  to  carry  Peter,  pack  and  all, 
but  the  boy's  pride  was  a  bit  wounded.  When  the  party  halted  at  a  little 
brook  for  lunch,  Graveraet  again  reached  for  the  stripling's  pack  after 
lunch  was  over. 

"I  will  carry  my  own  pack,  sir,"  said  Peter. 

He  has  been  carrying  it  ever  since  and  several  others  along  with  it. 
And  thus  w^e  meet  our  hero — Peter  White  of  Marquette — who,  man  and  boy, 
has  had  the  most  fascinating  career  of  anyone  who  has  ever  been  identified 
with  the  history  of  the  region  of  the  great  father  of  lakes.  The  theme 
is  fruitful. 


CHAPTER  I. 

THE  JOURNEY  TO  THE  IRON  MINES. 

DETER  WHITE  was  born  at  Rome.  Oneida  county,  New  York,  on 
October  31,  1830.  The  Whites  liad  Hverl  at  Rome  for  a  great  many 
years  and  Peter  is  bound  to  that  town  today  by  ties  of  great  affection.  A 
scene  was  enacted  there  that  is  worthy  of  a  place  in  the  annals  of  American 
history,  for  it  was  out  of  his  grandmother's  pe;:ticoat  that  the  first  fl?.g  of 
the  United  States  was  made.  The  first  recorded  legislative  action  by  the 
American  congress  in  session  at  Philadelphia  for  the  adoption  of  the 
stars  and  stripes  was  in  a  resolution  offered  Saturday,  June  14,  1777,  as 
follows  : 

"Resolved  that  the  fiag  of  tlic  thirteen  United  States  be  thirteen  stripes, 
alternate  red  and  white ;  that  the  union  be  thirteen  stars,  woven  in  a  blue 
field  representing  a  new  constellation." 

Although  this  resolution  was  not  ofificially  promulgated  by  the  secre- 
tary of  congress  until  Sept.  3.  1777,  it  seems  to  be  well  authenticated  that 
the  first  flag  hoisted  as  the  stars  and  stripes  was  unfurled  by  Capt.  Stephen 
White  on  Friday,  Aug.  6,  1777,  over  Fort  Stanwix,  commonly  known  as  Fort 
Schuyler,  then  a  militar\-  post  on  the  present  site  of  the  city  of  Rome, 
Oneida  county.  New  York.  This  flag  was  hastily  constructed  from  a 
soldier's  white  shirt,  an  officer's  blue  overcoat  and  a  woman's  red  petti- 
coat. Captain  Stephen  White  was  Peter  White's  grandfather  and  in  his 
zeal  to  make  an  emblem  for  the  new  republic  he  employed  one  of  his 
wife's  petticoats. 

Peter  \\niite's  first  trip  into  the  world  was  made  at  the  age  of  three 
years  when  he  began  an  independent  exploration  of  the  fastnesses  of  the 
city  of  Rome,  thus  giving  an  early  evidence  of  that  intrepid  nature  which 
has  made  his  life  so  notable.  There  is  lingering  in  his  mind  now  only 
vague  memories  of  his  first  incursion  into  the  world  which  consisted 
largely  of  amazing  high  buildings,  devious  and  bewildering  alleyways, 
vast  stretches  of  unknown  woodland  and  an  endless  procession  of  people, 
strange  and  mysterious,  who  were  scurrying  busily  in  all  directions  without 


THE   JOURNEY    TO    THE    IRON    MINES  31 

paying-  special  heed  to  the  lone  adventurer.  Meanwhile  two  persons  with 
whom  he  liad  hitherto  made  his  abode,  namely  his  father  and  mother,  were 
in  hot  hut  fearful  pursuit  which  lasted  until  the  hardy  young  explorer  was 
found  domiciled  in  a  great  castle,  ten  blocks  from  home,  which  had  capit- 
ulated upon  his  repeated  attacks  and  wdicre  he  was  enjoying  the  fruits 
of  his  concjuest  in  the  form  of  a  piece  of  cake.  The  young  soldier  of  for- 
tune was  hustled  ofif  home,  given  a  bath  and  put  to  bed.  He  seems  now  to 
have  lain  dormant  for  five  }'ears  waiting  for  other  worlds  to  concpier.  At 
any  rate  nothing  more  is  recorded  of  him  until  he  reached  the  age  of 
nine  years  when  his  parents  removed  to  Green  Bay,  Wis.,  and  planted 
cur  young  hero  at  the  base  of  that  country  which  was  to  become  singularly 
his  own.  The  little  lad  that  was  trotting  along  the  wagon  road  to  Green 
Ba}',  knocking  oil  the  tops  of  the  tall  grasses  with  a  switch,  was  eventually 
to  give  the  country  his  name.  The  upper  peninsula  of  Michigan  is  fre- 
quentlv  called  "Peter  White's  country." 

During  Peter  White's  stay  at  Green  Bay,  Louis  Phillippe  visited  the 
place  as  the  guest  of  Eleazer  Williams,  a  half-breed  of  great  character 
and  force.  Peter  rode  with  Louis  Phillippe  to  Eleazer  Williams'  home 
on  the  banks  of  the  Fox  river  but  it  must  be  confessed  that  he  rode 
with  the  driver.  He  remembers  the  heir  to  the  throne  of  France  as  a 
man  of  distinguished  bearing  and  gracious  manners.  Meanwhile  Peter 
was  just  an  ordinary  boy  going  to  school  and  soaking  into  his  system 
such  knowledge  as  a  boy  could  get.  He  was  an  earnest,  eager  student  but 
the  piping  schoolboy  times  were  not  to  his  liking  and  he  longed  to  make 
his  own  way  in  the  world.  At  the  age  of  fifteen  he  left  home.  He  might, 
indeed,  be  called  a  fifteen  year  old  runaway  for  he  left  home  without  the 
consent  of  his  parents  and  while  he  corresponded  with  them  faithfully 
he  did  not  see  them  again  for  ten  years.  The  world's  base  to  him  at  that 
time  was  ]\Iackinac  Lsland,  whither  he  went.  It  was  just  when  the  copper 
excitement  was  at  its  height  and  the  imagination  of  Peter  was  greatly  in- 
flamed bv  it  L'l  a  little  while  he  left  for  the  Sault  in  the  hope  of  reaching 
the  promised  land.  In  this  venture  he  was  unsuccessful  and  returned  to 
Mackinac  Island.  It  is  interesting  to  note  that  he  arrived  at  the  Sault  on 
the  very  day  that  James  Schoolcraft  was  murdered  and  found  the  little 
settlement  in  a  perfect  turmoil  of  excitement  over  the  crime.  One  of 
Peter's  most  vivid  recollections  is  that  of  bending  over  the  body  of  the 
murdered  man  who  was  lying  in  the  grass  face  downward  with  a  bullet 
through  his  heart. 

On  June  10,  1847,  preparations  were  being  made  at  Sault  Ste.  Marie 


32  THE   HONORABLE   PETER  WHITE 

to  haul  the  schooner  Uncle  Tom  over  the  rapids.  Preparatory  to  doing 
so  Capt.  Brown  of  the  schooner  Swallow,  John  G.  Parker,  Capt.  John 
Stanard,  E.  G.  Seymour,  Tom  Ritchie,  William  Flynn  and  Dr.  Prouty  got 
into  a  yawl  to  go  over  the  rapids  to  sound  a  channel  for  the  schooner. 
Capt.  Brown  was  steering  the  boat,  Capt.  Stanard  was  forward  piloting 
her  down  and  Parker  was  pulling  the  stroke  oar.  When  the  yawl  came 
to  the  first  fall  she  took  in  some  water  and  Parker  took  the  precaution  to 
pull  off  his  boots.  When  the  yawl  got  to  the  big  fall  she  filled  forward, 
weered  badly  in  the  eddy,  then  capsized  and  floated  down  the  river  bottom- 
side  up.  When  opposite  McKnight's  dock.  Capt.  Brown  and  Mr.  Parker 
clung  to  her  bottom  and  were  taken  off  by  Capt.  Redmund  Ryder.  Shawano, 
the  Indian  chief,  who  was  out  fishing  in  his  canoe,  saw  Seymour  go  down. 
He  paddled  over  to  the  spot  and  succeeded  in  pulling  him  up  with  his  spear. 
All  the  rest  were  drowned.  That  very  afternoon  Capt.  Moore  of  the 
schooner  Merchant  in  going  ashore  at  the  Sault  suffered  a  broken  leg 
by  the  oar  striking  the  dock  and  as  soon  as  Capt.  Brown  got  into  dry 
clothes  he  was  asked  to  take  the  Merchant  up  to  Portage  Entry.  Just  as 
she  was  about  to  sail  an  active  lad,  who  was  extremely  desirous  of  reaching 
the  copper  country,  asked  for  the  privilege  of  working  his  passage  on  her. 
He  was  refused  because  the  boat  had  a  full  crew  and  a  heavy  passenger  list. 
It  was  fortunate  for  him  and  for  this  tale  that  this  was  so,  for  the  boy  was 
Peter  White.  The  Merchant  never  reached  Portage  Entry.  She  sank 
near  Grand  Island  with  all  on  board. 

Among  the  vessels  lying  at  the  dock  at  Sault  Ste.  Marie  was  the 
schooner  Bela  Hubbard,  then  plying  regularly  between  Detroit  and  the 
Sault.  Upon  this  vessel  Peter  White  managed  to  secure  an  humble  position. 
This  constitutes  now  an  interesting  period  of  his  life  because  it 
embraces  all  that  is  maritime  in  it.  He  sailed  before  the  mast,  as  the 
novelists  say,  on  the  schooner  Bela  Hubbard — and  on  the  schooner  Bela 
Hubbard  only.  After  the  vessel  had  made  about  half  a  dozen  trips  between 
Detroit  and  Sault  Ste.  Marie  she  capsized  off  Thunder  Bay  island.  For- 
tunately no  one  was  drowned.  After  considerable  buffeting  they  managed 
to  reach  the  island  and  were  taken  to  Bay  City  by  the  propeller  Chicago.* 
The  crew  volunteered  to  w^ork  their  passage  back  to  Detroit  and  were  all  en- 
gaged. Before  shipping,  however,  thev  obeyed  the  natural  instinct  to  see  what 
manner  of  place  Bay  City  might  be  and  improved  the  few  hours  of  daylight 
in  that  pursuit.     In  returning  to  the  vessel  after  dark  they  had  to  crawl 

*  The  Cliicago,  Vandalia  and  Oswego  were  the  first  screw  boats  to  be  built  on  the  great 
lakes.  They  were  all  built  at  Oswego,  the  Vandalia  being  built  in  the  winter  of  1839-40,  and  the 
Chicago  and  Oswego  in  the  winter  of  1840-41.  The  Vandalia  was  80  ft.  keel,  19i/$  ft.  beam  and  10 
ft.  moulded  deptli.  The  Chicago  and  Oswego  were  95  ft.  over  all,  19 '/4  ft.  beam  and  10  ft.  moulded 
depth. 


THE    JOURNEY    TO    THE    IRON    ^IINES 


33 


over  piles  of  lumber  20  feet  high,  which,  with  the  natural  altitude  of  the 
dock,  made  th.e  deck  of  the  Chicago  below  a  somewhat  indistinct  mark  to 
jump  upon.  However,  they  all  made  it  well  except  Peter.  He  jumped 
into  the  fore  hold  and  broke  his  left  arm. 

In  all  such  primitive  settlements 
there  is  always  one  person  without 
special  training  who  makes  claim  to 
medical  knowledge  and  by  common 
repute  obtains  an  undeserved  reputa- 
tion for  skill.  In  this  particular  case 
it  was  a  woman  who  attended  Peter 
with  such  success  that  by  the  time  the 
bov  reached  Detroit  the  arm  had 
swollen  to  three  times  its  natural  size 
and  was  giving  him  excruciating  pain. 

He  was  taken  at  once  to  the  office 
of  a  physician,  who  after  a  cursory  ex- 
amination decided  that  the  only  thing 
to  do  was  to  amputate  the  arm. 
Doctors  have  an  agreeable  custom 
when  proceeding  upon  a  capital  opera- 
tion in  emergencies  of  this  character 
to  invite  a  number  of  fellow  surgeons 
to  witness  the  operation.  They  too 
frequently  gather  merely  as  witnesses 
and  do  not  exercise  their  perceptive 
■faculties  on  the  patient's  behalf  as 
natch  as  they  should.  Upon  this  occa- 
sion Peter  was  put  into  a  reclining  chair  and  securely  strapped.  Several  doc- 
tors entered  and  exchanged  greetings  with  the  operating  surgeon,  but  none 
of  them  paid  any  attention  to  Peter.  They  drew  their  chairs  about  and 
gathered  around  in  a  semi-circle  and  the  operating  surgeon  proceeded  to 
select  his  instruments.  Peter  was  silent  and  pale  as  a  ghost.  Presently 
there  entered  the  room  a  surgeon  whose  reputation,  alreadv  wide,  was  soon 
to  become  national.  His  name  was  Zina  Pitcher.  Pie  did  not,  as  had  those 
who  preceded  him,  merely  take  a  seat,  but  went  immediately  to  the  patient 
and  examined  the  arm.  It  was  frightfully  swollen.  He  asked  the  operating 
surgeon  if  any  steps  had  been  taken  to  reduce  the  swelling,  and  the  surgeon 
replied  in  the  negative. 


DR.    ZIXA    PITCHER. 


34  THE   HONORABLE   PETER   WHITE 

"We  cannot  tell  an}'thino'  about  the  condition  of  the  arm  until  the 
swelling  is  reduced,"  said  Dr.  Pitcher.  "I  think  it  would  be  well  to  delay 
the  operation  for  a  couple  of  days.'' 

He  gave  instructions  that  hot  whisk}-  and  water,  as  hot  as  it  could 
be  borne,  should  be  poured  upon  the  arm  at  fifteen-minute  intervals  dur- 
ing the  next  twenty-four  hours.  The  eft'ect  of  this  treatment  was  wonderful. 
When  Dr.  Pitcher  called  twenty-four  hours  later  the  swelling  was  greatly 
reduced  He  ordered  the  treatment  continued  for  twenty-four  hours  longer 
and  the  arm  had  by  that  time  almost  regained  its  normal  size. 

"AJv  bov,"  said  Dr.  Pitcher,  "I  don't  believe  we'll  amputate  this  arm 
at  all." 

He  securelv  fastened  Peter  into  a  chair,  and,  working  with  the  utmost 
rapiditv,  while  the  youngster  screamed  with  pain,  he  pulled  the  bones  into 
place  and  put  the  arm  into  splints.  Peter  carried  his  arm  in  splints  for  four 
months,  but  at  the  end  of  that  time  it  was  a  good  arm  and  is  a  good  arm  yet. 

Some  years  later  Dr.  Zina  Pitcher  died  and  was  borne  to  an  unmarked 
grave.  The  Detroit  papers,  conscious  of  the  man's  greatness,  suggested 
the  advisability  of  a  public  subscription  to  erect  a  monument  over  his 
resting  place.  This  petition  fell  under  the  eye  of  Peter  White,  who  im- 
mcdiatelv  subscribed  to  the  fund.  He  never  received  acknowledgement  of 
the  receipt  of  his  monev.  This,  however,  was  not  the  fault  of  the  paper. 
It  was  prompth.  acknowledgcfl  though  the  issue  in  which  it  was  acknowl- 
edged did  not  reach  him.  Put  as  a  matter  of  fact  Peter  White's  money 
did  not  go  into  the  monument,  but  was  devoted  to  a  far  more  tender 
and  beautiful  purpose.  His  contribution  from  Marquette,  owing  to  the 
inicertain  mail  service  of  those  days,  did  not  reach  Detroit  until  the  sub- 
scription account  was  closed.  Indeed  the  entire  amount  was  subscribed 
in  a  day.  When  Peter  White's  contributiori  arrived,  a  florist,  noting 
the  eloquence  of  the  letter,  offered  to  plant  flowers  each  succeeding  year 
upon  the  grave,  and  to  this  jiurpose  the  mi)ne\-  was  pledged.  (_)ne  of  the 
most-prized  treasures  in  Peter  White's  collection  today  is  a  photograph 
of  this  sturdy  old  physician. 

When  Peter's  arm  had  sufficier,tl\-  mended  to  permit  him  to  work 
again  he  obtained  employment  as  clerk  in  the  store  of  Freeman  &  Bro.,  on 
JeiYerson  avenue  in  Detroit  and  remained  with  the  firm  for  nearly  a  year. 
He  then  shipped  with  a  man  who  was  going  to  keep  the  government  light- 
ship at  Waugoshance  reef  in  the  Straits  of  Mackinac,  but  when  he  reached 
Mackinac  Island  he  found  that  the  place  which  he  sought  had  been  filled. 
He  obtained  emploxment  in  the  sumiuer  time  with  Capt.  Canfield  of  the  light- 


THE   JOURNEY   TO   THE    IROX    AITXES  35 

house  service,  who  ^\as  l^uilding  a  crih  at  Waugoshance  Reef,  and  in  the 
winter  time  he  obtained  a  clerkship  in  the  store  of  Edward  Kanter  with 
a  nmch  vahied  permission  to  go  to  school. 

Projecting  from  one  side  of  Canfield's  tent  Peter  was  accustomed  to 
see  one  of  his  trunks  having  his  name  and  address  painted  on  the  end, 
as  is  customar}'.  It  read,  "Captain  Augustus  Canfield,  Corps  of  Engineers, 
U.  S.  A.,  Detroit.  Mich."  The  supplies  and  special  articles  for  the  work 
were  usually  addressed  to  "Captain  Canfield,  Topographical  Engineers, 
Waugoshance  Lighthouse,  Straits  of  Mackinac,  Michigan."  Having  no 
other  copy.  Peter  used  to  imitate  this  writing  and  the  lettering  on  the  trunk, 
as  a  boy  desirous  of  perfecting  himself  in  penmanship  naturally  would. 
One  day  the  corps  ran  short  of  stone  and  Captain  Canfield  ordered  the 
boat's  crew,  and  taking  along  provisions  for  a  trip  of  several  days,  pulled 
across  the  straits.  Captain  Canfield  made  an  exploration  of  the  shore  to 
secure  a  place  to  open  a  quarrv  of  stone.  C)n  such  exploring  tours  the 
boat's  crew  had  nothing  to  do  but  wait  on  the  beach  until  the  captain  re- 
turned from  his  tramp  in  the  hills.  Peter  took  advantage  of  one  of  these 
halts  to  write  on  the  san<l  in  letters  six  inches  high,  "Captain  Augustus 
Canfield,  U.  S.  Topograi)hical  Engineers.  Waugoshance  Lighthouse, 
Straits  of  Mackinac,  Michi;?;an,"  until  he  had  practically  filled  the  beach 
with  the  lettering.  Canfield  had  a  sharp,  incisive  wav  of  speaking,  and 
when  he  returned  he  abruptl_\-  asked, 

"Who  did  that?" 

Captain  Lasley,  the  coxswain  of  the  boat,  pointed  to  Peter  and  said: 
"That  little  cuss."  Canfield  then  went  about  on  other  business,  and  Lasley, 
\vho  it  appears  could  not  read,  gathered  tliat  the  scribbling  was  derogatory 
to  Canfield.  He  rather  frightened  the  boy  with  his  forebodings  of  punish- 
ment, and  Peter  was  bv  no  means  reassured  when  Canfield  sent  for  him  the 
next  morning.  Canfield  had  nothing  more  in  mind  however  than  to  pro- 
mote him  to  the  position  of  time-keeper  at  a  fair  advance  in  wages.  The 
clerk,  it  a]:)pears,  was  overliurdened  with  work  and  Canfield  was  glad  to 
discover  that  there  was  some  one  among  his  crew  who  could  relieve  him. 

]\Iackinac  Island  is  small,  charming  and  highly  romantic.  It  is  one 
of  th.e  most  beautiful  spots  in  the  world.  It  rises  abruptlv  out  of  the 
emerald  water.  It  has  a  superb  pebble  beach,  guarded  by  overhanging 
cliffs  of  cragg\-  rocks,  trimmed  with  exquisite  evergreens,  but  its  great 
attraction  lies  in  its  intense  hunianitv,  for  its  government  has  been  Indian, 
French,  British  and  American  in  succession.  Peter  White  spent  two  years 
upon  this  island,  and  now,  as  the  president  of  the  Mackinac  Island  state 
park  commission,  can  look  back  with  pleasure  upon  those  years. 


36  THE   HONORABLE  PETER  WHITE 

Samuel  K.  Haring  was  the  collector  of  customs  of  Mackinac  Island, 
in  such  a  small  commimity,  where  population  is  only  a  household,  there 
is  much  interchange  of  thought  and  confidence.  Haring  took  an  interest 
in  Peter,  his  hopes  and  his  ambitions,  and  when  Robert  J.  Graveraet  ap- 
peared upon  the  island  in  1849  i"  search  of  men  to  develop  the  iron  mines 
of  Lake  Superior,  Haring  urged  the  bov  to  join  the  expedition.  Graveraet 
was  offering  $12  a  month  and  board,  Peter  was  making  $35  a  month  and 
board,  but  Haring.  who  was  a  man  of  remarkable  foresignt  and  who  clearly 
saw  the  advantages  such  a  vouth  would  have  in  a  country  capable  of  untold 
development,  urged  him  to  go.  So  Peter,  eighteen  years  old,  offered  his 
services  to  Graveraet  and  started  out  upon  his  life's  work.  There  followed 
the  tempestuous  voyage  in  the  worthless  little  side-wheeler  Tecumseh. 
The  party  had  gone  but  a  few  miles  from  Mackinac  when  a  huge  wave 
took  off  the  yawl  boat,  swept  the  decks  clear  of  freight  and  sent  Capt. 
Pratt  scurrying  back  into  harbor  again.  The  next  day  the  boat  started 
out  again  with  more  passengers  than  it  could  either  sleep  or  feed,  for  it  was 
not  intended  that  the  vessel  should  take  over  twelve  hours  in  making  the 
trip  to  Sault  Ste.  Marie.  After  an  heroic  struggle  the  boat  finally  got 
inside  of  the  Detour  and  there  met  with  such  solid  ice  that  she  had  to 
back  out  again.  It  took  the  boat  ten  days  to  literally  hammer  Uer  way 
to  the  Sault.  Meanwhile  the  supply  of  food  had  become  exhausted  and  an 
incipient  bread  riot  occurred.  This  was  quelled,  however,  by  the  boat 
actually  sinking  to  her  deck,  furnishing  an  excitement  that  temporarily 
banished  hunger.  There  was  on  board  an  old  man,  nicknamed  Old  Saler- 
atus,  who  w^as  the  butt  of  every  gibe  and  jest,  but  he  proved  the  ship's 
salvation,  for  his  trade  was  that  of  ship  carpenter.  He  found  the  leak 
and  stopped  it. 

Then  followed  the  trip  in  ihe  Mackinaw  barge  to  Indian  Town, 
which  has  previously  been  noted,  and  the  march  to  the  iron  hills  where 
Peter  at  the  little  brook  resolutely  picked  up  his  own  pack  and  carried  it 
the  rest  of  the  way.  He  dropped  it  at  the  Cleveland  mine,  which  was  then 
known  to  the  little  party  onlv  as  Moody's  location.  The  tramp  had  been 
a  long  and  weorv  one.  The  country  was  jagged,  broken  and  mountainous, 
denselv  wooded  and  thick  with  underbrush,  with  only  a  tree  blazed  here 
and  there  by  the  Indians  to  guide  the  way.  There  is  not  in  the  Lake 
Superior  region  the  even  sweep  of  range  and  canyon,  as  in  the  far  west, 
which  frequcntlv  oft'ers  level  stretches  for  the  traveler.  It  is  a  constant 
grade  which  wearies  the  lungs  as  nuich  as  it  does  the  legs.  Peter  was  tired 
when  he  dropped  his  pack. 


CHAPTER  11. 

THE  FOUNDING  OF  MARQUETTE. 

C  AIMUEL  MOODY  and  John  H.   Mann,  who  had   spent  the  previous 

winter  and  summer  at  the  location,  came  out  of  a  httle  log  shanty  to 
welcom.e  Graveraet.  They  were  keeping-  possession  for  this  indomitable 
soul.  The  party  was  exhausted  and  lost  no  time  in  getting  to  bed,  but 
Peter  was  up  betimes  in  the  morning.  He  found  Capt.  Moody  already 
stirring. 

"Come  and  help  me  dig  some  potatoes,  boy,"  said  he. 

"What?"  exclaimed  Peter,  who  with  the  snow  scarcely  off  the  ground, 
knew^  that  it  was  not  the  time  to  plant  potatoes,  much  less  dig  them. 

"Come  and  help  me  dig  potatoes,"  repeated  Moody,  and  seizing  a  hoe 
and  an  old  tin  pail  he  led  the  Avav  to  the  top  of  the  iron  mountain  adjoining. 
About  half  an  acre  upon  its  pinnacle  had  been  partially  cleared  and  planted 
to  potatoes.  The  astonished  Peter  saw  him  open  one  or  two  hills  and  fill  his 
pail  with  large  and  splendid  potatoes. 

"I  may  as  well  get  some  parsnips  and  carrots  for  dinner  while  I'm 
about  it."  said  Moody,  and  suiting  the  action  to  the  word,  he  began  to  pull 
them  up  in  great  abundance  before  the  eyes  of  the  speechless  Peter. 

This  was  the  ordinary  method  adopted  by  the  preemptors  to  keep 
their  vegetables  sound  and  sweet  over  winter  and  not,  as  Peter  thought 
for  the  nonce,  the  extraordinary  perversity  of  nature. 

Graveraet  set  Peter  to  work  clearing  brush  and  kept  him  at  it  for  a 
month.  Thus  he  denuded  the  ore  of  its  covering  and  prepared  the  way 
for  those  immense  shipments  which  have  since  swung  the  pendulum  of 
the  world's  manufacture  of  iron  and  steel  west  of  the  Alleghenies.  It  is 
needless  to  say  that  Peter  could  not  see  the  result  of  his  handiwork.  He 
did  not  know  that  he  was  making  history.  He  cleared  brush  energetically, 
and  incidentally  fought  black  flies  by  day  and  mosquitos  by  night.  The  activ- 
ity of  these  pests  was  so  incessant  that  the  surveyors  in  the  Lake  Superior  re- 
gion were  forced  to  wear  buckskin  masks  over  their  faces  while  running  the 
lines.     As  the  masks  speedily  became  grimy  with  dirt  the  sight  of  the  sur- 


38  THE  HONORABLE   PETER  WHITE 

veyors  to  the  uninitiated  was  formidable  and  terrifying.  On  June  lo,  1849, 
the  work  of  clearing-  the  brush  was  temporarily  suspended  and  Graveraet 
and  his  party  went  down  to  the  shore  of  the  lake  to  welcome  Harlow  and  his 
party  from  Worcester,  whom  he  calculated  would  arrive  about  this  time 
with  the  machinery  for  the  forge.  They  found  that  Mr.  Harlow  had  arrived 
with  quite  a  number  of  mechanics,  and  what  was  most  interesting  of  all, 
a  few  of  the  gentler  sex.  They  had  reached  Marquette  the  day  before  on 
the  schooner  Algonquin  from  the  Sault.  When  the  vessel  had  passed 
Laughing  Whitefish  point  an  east  wind  was  blowing  and  Capt.  John  McKay 
had  previously  decided  that  Iron  Bay.  now  Marquette,  was  no  place  for  a 
schooner  to  be  during  an  east  wind.  The  prevailing  opinion  of  navigators 
was  that  Iron  Bay  was  full  of  sunken  rocks.  He  accordingly  landed  his 
passengers  on  the  beach  just  above  little  Presque  Isle.  They  were  about 
thirty-five  in  number  and  had  a  large  amount  of  baggage,  including  trunks 
and  tool  chests,  which  was  all  dumped  about  the  beach.  They  were  com- 
pelled to  stay  there  over  night  without  bedding  and  were  a  sadly  bedraggled 
and  uncomfortable  lot  when  thev  reached  Marquette  the  following  after- 
noon. Every  one  was  enthusiastic,  however,  and  the  impulse  to  give  reign 
to  the  imagination  was  irresistible.  All  were  seized  by  the  same  thought — 
the  founding  of  a  great  city. 

"Let  me  fell  the  first  tree,"  cried  Peter,  giving  voice  to  the  common 
thought. 

He  cut  a  tree  at  the  point  of  rock  on  what  is  now  Lake  street  at 
such  an  angle  that  it  fell  over  the  bank  onto  the  lake  shore.  It  was  a  young 
tree  that  Peter  selected,  but  it  was  the  first.  Instantly  all  grasped  axes  and 
attacked  the  virgin  forest.  They  decided  to  call  the  future  city  Worcester, 
in  honor  of  Mr.  Harlow's  native  home.  With  the  trees  that  were  felled  they 
began  the  construction  of  a  dock  that  very  afternoon,  because  they  ex- 
pected the  arrival  of  another  vessel  with  more  machinery  in  a  few  days. 
The  trees  were  carried  into  the  water  whole  and  piled  lengthwise  and  cross- 
wise until  the  structure,  thus  created,  was  even  with  the  surface  of  the 
water.  Then  they  wheeled  sand  and  gravel  upon  it  and  by  the  end  of 
the  second  week  the  dock  seemed  both  capacious  and  substantial.  Its 
outer  front  was  made  of  solid  rock.  The  surface  was  corduroyed  on  the 
third  week  and  it  was  then  ready  for  the  reception  of  freight. 

One  morning  of  the  fourth  week,  Peter  White,  who  was  always  the 
first  out  of  bed,  was  surprised  to  find  that  the_dock  had  entirely  disappeared. 
Not  a  trace  of  it  remained.  The  sand  of  the  beach  was  as  clean,  smooth 
and  packed  as  it  had  been  for  centuries  before.     Peter  could  scarcely  credit 


THE   FOUXDIXG   OF   MARQUETTE  39 

!iis  senses,  but  in  a  moment  the  humor  of  the  thing  caught   him   and  he 
merrily  traced  upon  the  sand  : 

"Tliis  is  the  spot  w  here  Capt.  Moody  built  his  dock." 

Moody  was  wroth  when  he  saw  the  havoc  which  the  sea  had  made^ 
and  more  wroth  }et  when  he  saw  what  Peter  White  had  written.  He 
obliterated  the  record  and  threatened  to  discharge  the  boy  at  the  end  of 
the  month ;  but,  as  in  the  manner  of  impetuous  and  violent-tempered  men, 
straiffhtwav  foreot  about  it.  It  was  a  long  time  before  anyone  had  the  hardi- 
hood  to  attempt  the  building  of  a  dock  again. 

Methods  were  primitive  indeed.  Boilers  were  plugged  and  thrown 
overboard  and  other  machinery  was  landed  by  the  Mackinaw  barge. 
Cattle  and  horses  were  invariably  pitched  overboard  to  swim  ashore.  Pas- 
sengers and  perishable  freight  were  landed  with  small  boats.  Under  the 
leadership  of  James  Kelly,  the  head  carpenter,  who  was  from  Boston,  Peter 
assisted  in  building  a  log  house  for  his  particular  party,  and  when  it  was 
finished  it  was  called  Revere  house  after  the  most  fashionable  hotel  in 
Boston.     This  building  stood  and  retained  its  name  as  late  as  i860. 

During  the  first  week  or  so  all  labor  was  strictly  manual.  There  was 
no  horse  to  be  had.  Xo  matter  how  heavy  a  log  might  be  the  men  pulled 
and  hauled  it  about  as  best  they  could.  By  some  means,  however,  a  horse 
that  belonged  to  Silas  Smith  came  into  possession  of  the  party  and  Peter 
was  selected  to  drive  him.  The  boy  was  immensely  pleased  with  this  task. 
The  horse  was  a  useful  animal  and  catholic  in  its  appetite.  It  would  eat 
anything.  Smith  even  warranted  him  to  thrive  on  sawdust,  provided  it  was 
from  hardwood.  A  week  or  so  later  an  old  man  named  Ganson  wandered 
into  the  camp  with  a  team  of  oxen,  a  cow  and  a  calf  wdiich  he  sold  to 
Graveraet's  party. 

"Peter,  can  you  drive  oxen?"  sang  out  Graveraet. 

'T  can,"  answered  Peter  gravely,  but  with  some  hesitation. 

Peter  did  not  know  whether  he  could  drive  oxen  or  not.  He  knew 
that  "Haw"  meant  for  the  oxen  to  go  one  way  and  "Gee"  the  other,  but 
he  did  not  know  which  was  which.  He  reasoned,  however,  that  if  he  did  not 
know  the  oxen  did,  and  taking  the  gad  he  drove  them  straight  ahead 
until  well  out  of  sight  of  the  camp,  wdien  he  yelled  "Whoa!"  The  oxen 
stopped. 

"Haw !"  cried  Peter. 

The  oxen  turned  to  the  left.  Then  Peter  knew  that  "Gee"  meant  to  the 
right.  When  he  returned  to  the  camp  and  nonchalantly  yelled  "Raw** 
everyone  concluded  that  Peter  had  been  driving  oxen  all  his  life. 


40  THE   HONORABLE   PETER  WHITE 

"Can  you  milk  ?"  asked  Mrs.  Wheelock,  the  boarding-house  keeper. 

"Yes,"  answered  Peter  unhesitatingly,  for  this  he  knew  he  could  do. 
And  so  he  was  let  into  the  graces  of  a  very  good  and  kind  woman  who  vol- 
unteered to  do  his  washing  and  mending  and  who  invited  him  to  eat  at 
the  second  table,  for  all  of  which  he  was  truly  grateful. 

Peter  was  proudly  driving  his  oxen  a  week  later  when  a  stranger  over- 
took him  and  demanded  the  cattle,  claiming  that  they  belonged  to  the 
Jackson  Iron  Co.  Peter  declined  to  surrender  them  and  drove  them  back 
into  camp.  That  night  the  cow  and  calf  were  stolen  and  it  was  reported 
on  reliable  authoritv  that  the  directors  and  president  of  the  Jackson  Mining 
Co.,  who  had  just  arrived  at  their  mine,  had  had  veal  for  dinner.  ]\Iore 
in  sorrow  than  in  anger  the  Jackson  company  rebuked  old  Ganson  for 
having  sold  the  animals  while  he  was  in  debt  to  the  company  for  the  freight 
on  them  up.  The  old  man's  heroic  reply  was  that  the  Jackson  company 
owed  everybody,  but  that  he  chose  to  reverse  the  order  of  things  and 
owe  the  Jackson  company.  In  that  event,  he  said,  there  was  a  possibility 
that  the  debt  might  some  day  be  paid. 

About  this  time  Jim  Presque  Isle,  whose  real  name  was  James  Hilliard, 
informed  Capt.  Moody  that  there  was  a  large  meadow  a  short  distance  from 
Presque  Isle  covered  with  superb  grass.  The  only  trouble  with  it  was  that 
the  water  on  it  was  too  deep  to  admit  of  mowing  it.  In  a  few  hours,  however, 
he  thoupht  a  drain  could  be  cut  out  into  the  lake  that  would  draw  the 
meadow  dry.  Moody  collected  his  men,  and,  armed  with  shovels,  axes, 
scythes,  rakes  and  pitchforks,  they  rowed  to  the  meadow.  Capt.  jNIoody 
was  palpably  nervous.  He  had  never  attempted  to  drain  a  field  before, 
but  he  deliberately  staked  out  the  proper  place  for  the  canal  and  ordered 
the  workmen  to  proceed.  They  dug  each  way  from  the  center  for  four  or 
five  hours,  and  then  opened  both  ends  simultaneously,  when  to  the  great 
astonishment  of  the  workmen  and  the  no  less  great  chagrin  of  Moody,  the 
waters  of  Lake  Superior  rushed  in  and  submerged  the  meadow.  The  field 
of  scientific  engineering  was  permanently  abandoned  by  Moody  and  he 
directed  his  workmen  to  resume  the  clearing  of  the  land  at  Worcester  for 
the  erection  of  the  forge,  the  machine  shop,  the  saw  mill  and  the  coal  house, 
which  were  to  be,  in  his  judgment  and  that  of  the  entire  party,  the  fore- 
runner of  a  great  industrial  city.  It  should  be  noted  that  the  name  of 
Worcester  did  not  long  continue.  It  was  changed  to  that  of  the  most 
illustrious  of  the  Jesuit  missionaries,  Pere  Marquette,  who  now  sleeps  peace- 
fully at  St.  Ignace. 

Meanwhile  the  restless  Graveraet  had  eone  to  Milwaukee  and  returned 


THE   FOUXDIXG   OF   ^lARQUETTE  41 

in  August  on  the  little  schooner  Fur  Trader,  with  a  large  number  of 
Germans,  some  Irish  and  a  few  French,  to  develop  the  iron  mines.  It 
was  the  great  cholera  year  and  various  parts  of  the  country  were  affected 
with  the  dread  pestilence.  The  little  schooner  had  a  frightful  voyage. 
Ship  fever  broke  out  and  was  mistaken  for  cholera.  Several  died  on  the 
voyage  and  many  were  landed  very  sick.  No  sooner  did  the  report  get 
abroad  that  the  ship  was  stricken  with  the  cholera  than  every  Indian  de- 
parted. Within  sixty  minutes  the  last  canoe  was  out  of  sight,  for  the  cholera 
to  them  was  more  fearful  than  even  the  small-pox.  Dr.  Rogers  was  called 
upon  to  lay  aside  the  axe  and  resume  the  calling  which,  at  a  later  date,  he 
practiced  with  such  distinction  at  Chicago.  He  quickly  saw  that  the  men 
were  not  suffering  with  cholera  at  all,  but  with  ship  and  typhoid  fever. 
A  rude  building  was  constructed  and  used  as  a  hospital.  In  a  few  days 
Dr.  Rogers  himself  was  stricken  wnth  the  disease,  as,  indeed,  were  a  dozen 
other  powerful  men,  and  the  condition  of  all  of  them  was  desperate. 

"Peter,"  said  Graveraet  quietly,  "you  will  have  to  take  your  turn  in 
the  hospital." 

"Very  well,  sir,"  said  Peter  as  quietly. 

Mrs.  Wheelock  advised  Peter  to  bathe  the  patients  constantly.  Whether 
it  was  from  knowledge  or  intuition  or  what  not  she  directed  him  to  do 
that  which  the  highest  medical  skill  at  a  later  day  pronounced  the  best 
treatment  for  those  suffering  with  typhoid.  Peter  bathed  them  in  cold 
water  incessantlv.  Dr.  Rogers,  who  was  the  weakest  and  worst  of  all, 
endeavored  from  time  to  time  to  gather  his  scattered  faculties  and  direct 
the  treatment  of  himself  and  others.  He  mumbled  medical  terms  which 
Peter  could  not  understand,  so  he  went  on  heroically  plunging  them  into 
cold  water.  Things  looked  hopeless  for  two  weeks;  the.  men  were  seized 
with  the  haunting  deliriums  which  accompany  this  terrible  fever ;  they 
shrieked  for  food  and  medicine ;  but  for  answer  the  boy  gave  them  a  cold 
bath.  At  the  end  of  the  second  week  Dr.  Rogers  looked  at  him  calmly 
and  lucidly.    The  fever  had  fled  and  the  light  of  reason  was  in  his  eye. 

"Peter,"  said  he,  "you  have  saved  us  all,  but  if  you  could  have  under- 
stood me  vou  would  probably  have  killed  us  all." 

It  was  a  happy  crowd  when  the  fever  was  banished  and  the  Indians 
cautiouslv  put  tlie  noses  of  their  canoes  against  the  beach  in  Iron  Bay  again. 

Peter's  next  job  was  filling  the  first  steam  boiler  ever  set  up  in  the 
peninsula.  It  was  likewise  his  first  contract,  and  as  is  customary  in  such 
cases,  he  bid  too  low.  Peter's  bid  was  $1.50  and  as  the  work  had  to  be  done 
by  hand,  it  took  him  three  days  and  two  nights  to  do   it.     When  it  was 


42  THE   HONORABLE   PETER   WHITE 

finished  he  surveyed  it  with  sadness  but  with  wisdom.  As  part  compensa- 
tion, however,  he  was  installed  as  fireman  and  engineer,  and  only  left 
this  place  to  enter  the  machine  shop  to  become  a  mechanic. 

The  number  of  vessels  on  Lake  Superior  in  those  days  was  limited, 
scarcelv  more  than  half  a  dozen,  and  they  were  frequently  out  of  repair. 
The  Fur  Trader  was  the  only  one  which  endeavored  to  make  regular  trips 
to  Marquette,  but  even  these  were  three  or  four  weeks  apart.  Towards  the 
end  of  October  she  had  not  put  in  an  appearance  for  over  ten  weeks. 

One  of  the  hardships  of  existence  in  the  peninsula  was  the  inability  to 
replenish  the  stock  of  provisions  regularly  owing  to  the  infrequency  of 
communication.  The  stock  of  provisions  ran  quite  low.  Butter  and  other 
luxuries  entirely  disappeared.  Only  a  few  barrels  of  pork  and  flour  re- 
mained and  a  short-ration  order  had  to  be  issued.  One  of  the  men  pre- 
tended to  discover  a  conspiracy  among  the  Germans  to  seize  the  warehouse 
and  he  volunteered  to  organize  a  guard  to  protect  it.  The  prospect  of  a 
long  winter  on  a  few  mouthfuls  of  food  per  day  did  not  appeal  to  the 
Germans  whom  Graveraet  had  brought  from  Milwaukee,  and  one  bleak 
morning  in  November  thev  started  out  of  the  country  by  way  of  Grand 
Island  and  Munising.  But  few  of  the  party,  however,  ever  reached  Grand 
Island.  It  was  a  trackless  wilderness  and  many  of  them  stumbled  by  the 
way.  They  probably  would  have  perished  there  but  their  hardier  brothers 
returning  from  Grand  Island,  where  they  had  learned  that  a  propeller  loaded 
with  provisions  had  departed  for  Marquette,  revived  their  spirits  and  all 
came  back  to  Marquette. 

Graveraet,  wdio  had  disappeared  again — this  time  to  Chicago — came 
overland  via  ]\Iunising  from  Escanaba  with  a  troop  of  horses.  The  horses 
were  needed  for  the  purpose  of  drawdng  the  iron  ore  from  the  mines  to  Mar- 
quette, where  it  was  hoped  that  the  forge  under  construction  would  shortly  be 
in  operation.  His  purpose  was  to  make  Marquette  a  great  iron  and  steel 
manufacturing  center.  His  dream  was  to  make  the  peninsula  an  indus- 
trial empire.  The  only  thing  which  he  possessed  was  resistless  energy. 
Never  at  any  time  in  his  life  did  he  have  the  means  to  finance  his  projects. 
If  he  had  he  doubtless  would  have  stamped  his  individuality  more  power- 
fully upon  the  peninsula.  Graveraet  is  but  a  niemory  now ;  but  while 
he  lived  he  was  a  force.  He  had  practically  no  money  to  ofifer  those  who 
associated  themselves  with  him.  When  one  realizes  his  limitations,  the 
spectacle  of  the  man  penetrating  the  wilderness  with  men,  horses  and  equip- 
ment becomes  magnificent.  It  speaks  volumes  for  an  imperious  will  and 
fascinating  personality. 


THE  FOUXDIXG  OF  AIARQUETTE  43 

This  extraordinary  man  was  attracted  to  Peter  White,  for  they  had 
a  common  facihty  of' language.  Graveraet  spoke  EngHsh,  French,  German 
and  several  Indian  dialects.  He  was  highly  educated.  Peter  White  spoke 
several  languages  also,  a  gift  wholly  native,  for  his  mind  was  practically 
undisciplined.  He  seemed  to  have  the  facultv  of  absorbing  language  by 
association.  Throw  him  in  contact  with  an  Indian  and  Peter  White  would 
acquire  his  tongue  within  a  month.  Graveraet  was  therefore  attracted  to 
a  boy  ^^•hom  the  Chippewas  followed  after  as  though  thev  were  his  personal 
retinue.  The  Chippewas  liked  Peter  because  he  could  tell  them  stories 
in  their  own  language.  It  was  even  said  that  he  had  a  greater  hold  upon 
the  Infhans  than  Graveraet,  who  had  lived  among  them  for  vears.  There- 
fore when  Graveraet  wanted  anything  done  he  summoned  Peter.  One  day 
he  sent  him  upon  a  mission  of  some  delicacv  to  Escanaba.  This  meant  a 
trip  overland  across  the  peninsula — a  mere  nothing  nowadays,  but  a  con- 
j^iderable  undertaking  through  a  continuous  forest  for  a  boy  of  eighteen. 
Two  Chippewas,  Mongoose  and  Jimmeca,  volunteered  to  accompany  Peter. 
This  is  one  of  the  chief  recollections  of  the  man's  life,  which  is  not  sur- 
prising since  it  was  the  first  trip  he  ever  undertook  through  the  wilderness 
on  foot.  They  carried  their  provisions  on  their  backs.  The  Indians  were 
of  incalculable  aid  to  Peter  in  following  the  trail.  When  one  tree  is  blazed 
the  Indian  seems  to  know  by  instinct  where  to  look  for  the  next  blaze  and 
so  the  trail  was  followed  with  reasonable  accuracy.  There  is  nothing 
more  monotonous,  however,  than  following  a  trail,  either  on  horseback 
or  on  foot.  On  the  fourth  day  Peter  began  to  despair.  The  woods  seemed 
endless.  He  thought  of  the  children  of  Israel  in  the  wilderness.  Thev  were 
in  it  for  forty  years ;  Peter  was  in  it  for  four  days.  Poor  children  of  Israel, 
thought  Peter.  On  the  seventh  day  he  came  to  Escanaba,  then  known  as 
Flat  Rock,  having  scrambled  through  thickets  and  floundered  through 
swamps.  He  returned  in  five  days  and  made  a  mightv  resolve  never  to  go 
into  the  woods  again.  It  will  be  shown,  however,  how  quickly  this  resolution 
was  broken. 


CHAPTER  III. 

THE  OVERLAND  JOURNEY  TO  ESCANABA. 

'T'HE  business  of  pioneering  is  tragic.  There  may  be  plenty  of  comedy  here 
and  there,  a  deft  touch  of  humor  that  puts  a  high  hght  occasionally 
into  the  day's  work,  but  the  background  is  always  somber.  It  is  a  tragedy 
pure  and  simple.  The  initial  year  in  the  new  country  was  not  without  its 
sorrow.  A.  R.  Harlow  was  the  practical  man  in  the  settlement.  He  had 
heard  in  some  way  of  a  new  deposit  of  iron  near  the  mouth  of  the  Carp 
river  and  resolved  to  secure  it.  It  was  necessary  to  make  a  journey  to 
the  land  office  at  Sault  Ste.  Marie  to  obtain  the  necessary  papers.  John  H. 
Mann,  who  with  Moodv  was  guarding  the  mines  for  Graveraet,  undertook 
to  make  the  journey  in  a  small  boat.  i\ccompanying  him  were  Jim  Presque 
Isle,  Henry  Emmons  and  a  boy  named  Kellogg.  Emmons  was  the  monied 
man  of  the  party  and  carried  the  gold,  amounting  to  a  thousand  dollars  or 
more,  in  his  belt.  He  had  joined  the  Marquette  Iron  Co.  when  it  was  or- 
ganized at  Worcester.  They  left  Marquette  on  Nov.  27th.  This  is  well 
into  the  treacherous  season  and  is  an  undertaking  which  no  one,  familiar 
with  the  moods  of  Lake  Superior,  would  attempt.  Their  boat  was  little 
more  than  a  row  boat.  The  party  never  reached  Sault  Ste.  Marie  and  never 
returned  to  Marquette.  Weeks  later  Jim  Presque  Isle  and  Emmons  were 
found,  one  in  each  end  of  the  boat,  dead,  the' gold  still  undisturbed  in  Em- 
mons' belt.  The  other  two  had  doubtless  been  swept  overboard  before  the 
boat  struck  the  shore.  The  fact  that  there  was  no  iron  near  the  mouth  of  the 
Carp  river  makes  the  tale  more  pitiful  and  more  tragic. 

It  was  a  wonder,  too,  that  Moodv  did  not  meet  the  fate  of  Mann.  His 
life  was  preserved  for  the  civil  war  to  put  a  quietus  upon  it  but  he  gave  the 
peninsula  plenty  of  chances  to  take  it.  Graveraet,  as  related,  had  brought 
a  number  of  horses  from  Chicago,  depending  upon  the  vessels  to  bring  the 
hay  and  grain  for  the  long  winter's  feed  later.  The  schooners  Swallow  and 
Siscowit,  with  their  cargoes  of  grain,  were  unable  to  make  Marquette,  ow- 
ing to  a  storm,  and  ran  to  L'Anse,  where  they  laid  up  for  the  winter.     It 


THE    OVERLAXD    JOURNEY     TO     ESCAXABA  45 

was  absolutely  necessary  to  get  this  grain  to  keep  the  horses  from  starving, 
and  Capt.  Moody,  who  had  a  heart  of  oak,  started  after  it.  He  went  upon 
snow  shoes  to  L'Ansc.  accompanied  by  James  Broadbent,  an  old  salt-water 
sailor.  Upon  their  arrival  there  they  found  the  vessels  stripped,  and  what 
was  worse,  frozen  in  the  ice.  It  w'as  a  disheartening  task  but  Moody 
was  equal  to  it.  He  and  Broadbent  began  to  refit  the  Siscowit. 
Her  captain,  old  Jim  Bendry  of  L'Anse,  later  of  Baraga,  finding  that  he 
could  not  physically  prevent  them  from  doing  so,  contented  himself  by 
firing  upon  them  as  picturesque  a  stream  of  profanity  as  ever  emanated 
from  human  lips.  Moody  said  later  that  he  had  a  heap  of  respect  for  Ben- 
dry's  command  of  language.  They  filled  the  Siscowit  with  corn  and  oats 
from  the  Swallow  and  employed  a  large  number  of  Indians  to  cut  a  passage 
between  two  and  three  miles  long  through  the  ice,  so  as  to  float  her  out 
into  the  open  water.  They  got  her  out  on  Christmas  eve  and  arrived  at 
Marquette  on  Christmas  day.  the  sails  frozen  stifle  and  immovable  and  the 
ice  a  foot  deep  upon  her  deck.  They  had  not  seen  land  from  the  time  they 
left  I-'Anse  until  thev  got  into  Iron  Bay.  having  all  the  time  a  heavy  north- 
west gale  and  snow  storm.  There  was  much  rejoicing  wdien  the  schooner 
entered  the  bay.  She  was  successfully  unloaded,  but  in  endeavoring  to 
get  her  into  Chocolay  harbor  she  missed  the  channel  and  went  ashore  in  the 
breakers,  where  she  pounded  to  pieces. 

During  the  winter  the  little  colony  at  Marquette  had  only  three  or  four 
mails.  Mr.  Harlow,  the  deputy  postmaster,  employed  the  Indian  Jimmeca 
to  go  to  L'Anse  after  the  mail  at  the  cost  of  $io  a  trip.  The  manner  in 
wdiich  Mr.  Harlow  came  to  be  deputy  postmaster  Avas  thus  :  There  had 
been  neither  postmaster  nor  postoffice  at  Marquette  the  preceding  sum- 
mer. All  mail  intended  for  the  little  colony  on  the  shore  of  the  lake, 
after  being  landed  from  the  vessel,  would  be  taken  to  the  Jackson  forge,  nine 
miles  distant,  and  the  mail  l)ag  there  opened  by  the  postmaster,  P.  M.  Everett. 
The  mail  intended  for  Mar(|uette.  would  then  be  returned  to  the  carrier.  A 
settlement  had  grown  up  about  the  Jackson  forge  and  was  called  Carp  River, 
because  it  was  at  the  point  of  the  settlement  that  the  river  was  crossed. 
The  postofiice,  therefore,  was  known  as  Carp  River.  After  a  mail  had 
arrived  bv  vessel  it  was  particularly  irksome  to  the  little  colony  at  [Mar- 
quette to  wait  for  it  to  be  taken  to  Carp  River,  nine  miles  away,  to  be  opened 
and  then  returned.  Letters  were  infrequent  in  those  days  and  eagerly  de- 
voured. Newspapers  were  also  eagerly  sought  and  a  single  newspaper 
would  be  read  bv  the  entire  population.  It  was  carefully  wrapped  in  cloth 
as  it  passed  from  hand  to  hand  to  preserve  it  and  its  age  was  a  matter  of 


46  THE  HONORABLE  PETER  WHITE 

indifference  to  the  reader.  Just  before  the  close  of  navigation,  P.  AI.  Ev- 
erett brought  down  all  the  paraphernalia  of  his  office  to  Marquette,  which 
consisted  of  merely  a  few  books  and  mail  boxes  and  appointed  Mr.  Har- 
low as  the  deputy  postmaster.  Everett  and  nearly  everyone  at  the  Jackson 
forge  then  left  the  country  for  the  winter.  Indeed  not  a  vestige  now  re- 
mains of  this  settlement  at  Carp  river.  The  bridge  is  down,  the  forge  is 
gone,  the  houses  have  vanished  and  the  forest  has  grown  over  the  place  as 
though  the  hand  of  man  had  never  disturbed  it. 

In  the  spring  of  1850  the  old  Jackson  Co.  was  about  ready  to  suspend. 
It  had  undertaken  the  herculean  task  of  making  iron  a  thousand  miles 
away  from  the  market.  It  owed  even  to  its  own  workmen.  Mutterings 
were  heard  among  the  men  and  the  rumor  became  pretty  well  defined  that 
thev  intended  to  hang  the  president  of  the  company,  Mr.  Czar  Jones.  At 
any  rate  Jones  did  not  like  the  looks  of  things  and  sought  out  Peter  White. 
He  told  Peter  that  he  had  pressing  business  down  below.  "Down  below" 
was  the  usual  way  of  designating  one's  home.  He  asked  Peter  to  guide 
him  to  Escanaba.  Hard  knocks  had  begun  to  put  an  edge  on  Peter.  He 
was  growing  to  be  a  sharp  hand  at  a  bargain.  Moreover,  since  the  calf 
incident  he  had  a  poor  opinion  of  Jones.  He  declined  to  go.  Jones  raised 
his  bid  from  $1  per  day  to  $3  a  day  and  promised  to  pay  him  for  sixteen 
days,  the  time  that  Peter  estimated  it  would  take  to  go  and  come. 

"If  you  will  get  Mr.  Harlow  as  security  I  will  go  with  you,"  said  Pe- 
ter finally. 

Peter  drew  up  a  formal  contract,  but  while  Jones  eagerly  signed  it 
Harlow  was  most  reluctant  to  attach  his  signature.  Noting  this  reluctance, 
Jones  agreed  to  leave  the  money  with  Mr.  Harlow  to  be  paid  to  Peter  upon 
his  return. 

"You  will  take  along  a  man  to  carrv  the  provisions?"  asked  Peter. 

"Yes,"  answered  Jones. 

Peter  used  up  full  seven  days  in  reaching  Escanaba.  Never  since  has 
anyone  attempted  such  a  tortuous  route  across  the  peninsula.  If  there  was 
a  jungle  or  a  swamp  Peter  plunged  through  it  with  Jones  a  close  second. 
Peter  was  thinking  of  that  stolen  calf. 

"Haven't  vou  lost  the  w'ay?"  wailed  Jones  a  dozen  times  a  day. 

r)n  the  fourth  day  Peter  paused  and  wiped  his  brow.  He  gazed  about 
him  with  much  perplexity  of  expression. 

"Great  heavens,"  said  he,  "I  am  lost." 

Jones  fell  upon  his  knees.     Despair  was  written  upon  his  face. 

"To  pretend  to  be  a  guide,"  he  said,  "and  not  to  know  the  way." 


THE  OVERLAXD  JOURNEY  TO   ESCANABA  47 

The  truth  of  the  matter  was  that  Peter  had  been  looking  for  the  Es- 
canaba  river  for  a  full  day  and  had  failed  to  find  it.  A  little  later,  how- 
ever, he  came  upon  it.  but  Jones'  nerves  had  been  so  wrought  upon  that 
he  no  longer  trusted  his  guide.    He  started  up  stream  upon  his  own  hook. 

"Come  back."  roared  Peter,  "you're  going  the  wrong  way." 

The  old  man  stu!)bornly  continued  up  stream  until  Peter  running 
after  him  broke  the  ice  and  showed  him  which  way  the  current  flowed.  On 
the  seventh  dav  thcv  reached  Escanaba.  Peter  returned  to  Marquette  in 
three  days. 

The  forge  of  the  Marquette  Iron  Co.  went  into  commission  in  the 
spring  and  in  the  following  T"ly  Mr.  W.  A.  Fisher  and  J\lr.  Long  of  the 
company  visited  Marquette.  One  day  Peter  was  not  a  little  surprised  to 
have   Mr.   Long  send   for  him. 

"We  want  you  to  have  charge  of  the  company's  store,  Peter,"  said  Mr. 
Long;  "what  wages  will  }OU  expect?" 

Peter  had  got  out  of  the  habit  of  expecting  much  from  iron  companies. 
Graveraet  had  offered  him  $12,  and  sometimes  he  was  getting  it  and  some- 
times he   was   not. 

"I  would  expect  $24  a  month."  he  said  faintly  without  much  hope  of 
e'etting  it. 

"Indeed,"  replied  Mr.  Long  with  some  surprise.  "Very  well.  We 
were  expecting  to  pay  you  $45,  but  are  glad  to  get  you  for  $24." 

Peter  took  the  position  but  went  out  with  a  very  sober  face.     He  had 

learned  that  it  does  not  pay  to  have  one's  aim  too  low. 

-•( 

r 


CHAPTER  IV. 


PROVING  THE  CLAIMS  TO  THE  IRON  DEPOSITS 


T  N  the  fall  of  1850  the  preemptors  o;athercd  at  Sault  Ste.  Marie,  where  the 

land   office   was   established,   to   prove   their   claim   to   the   iron   deposits. 

Samuel  Moody  and  Dr.  Rogers  had  left  Marquette  in  a  small  boat  for  the 

Sault.  the  former  to  claim  the  Cleveland 
deposit  and  the  latter  to  claim  the  Lake 
Superior  location.  They  were  becalmed 
and  did  not  reach  the  Sault  on  the  ap- 
pointed day.  The  Cleveland  company, 
however,  had  not  permitted  its  claim  to 
lapse  for  an  instant  since  Dr.  Cassel's 
visit  in  18-16.  It  had  its  representative 
present.  They  defended  the  claim  of 
the  original  pre-emptor  and  conclusively 
proved  that  possession  had  been  under- 
taken long  before  either  Aloody  or  Mann 
appeared.  Papers  were  issued  in  the 
name  of  Lorenzo  Dow  Burnell  and  the 
contention  of  the  Cleveland  company 
was  later  substantiated  at  Washington. 
Graveraet  seemed  to  have  viewed  this 
with  complacency,  but  was  furious  at 
the  non-arrival  of  Rogers,  who  was  to 
have  secured  the  Lake  Superior  location  in  his  behalf.  He  was  white  with 
rage  when  Isaiah  Briggs  stepped  up  and  secured  it  on  liehalf  of  John  Burt. 
Briggs  was  a  packer  of  provisions  for  the  surveying  parties  and  had  built 
a  little  shanty  for  himself  and  his  pony  on  the  Lake  Superior  location, 
which  he  also  used  as  a  base  of  supplies.  (  )n  the  strength  of  this  residence 
he  secured  the  claim  for  Burt.  Graveraet  threatened  to  contest  the  claim 
unless    l!iin  gave  him  a  half  interest  in   it  at  once,  and   Burt  actually  did 


ALEXANDER    L.     CRAWFORD. 

From   a  pliotograph   taken    in   1885. 


PROVIXG   THE  CLAIMS    TO    THE    IRON    DEPOSITS  49 

give  to  Graveraet  an  undivided  one-half  interest  in  this  enormous  deposit. 
It  has  previously  been  shown  that  he  had  assigned  a  lease  of  this  deposit 
from  Rogers  to  the  Marquette  Iron  Co.  He  now  assigned  this  undivided 
one-half  interest  from  I'.urt  to  the  Marquette  Iron  Co. 

The  fame  of  Lake  Superior  iron  was  beginning  to  spread  and  was  at- 
tracting practical  ironmakers  from  Pennsylvania  and  Ohio.  The  most  pro- 
gressive of  these  was  Alexander  L.  Crawford,  of  Xew  Castle,  Pa.,  who  as 
earh'  as  1849  ordered  ten  tons  of  the  ore  sent  to  Xew  Castle  for  testing  pur- 
poses.* Ten  tons  are  nowadays  only  the  grab  of  a  clam-shell  bucket,  but  at 
that  time  it  was  a  considerable  order  and,  in  point  of  fact,  it  was  the  summer 
of  1850  before  the  ore  was  actually  transported  from  ^Marquette,  being 
brought  down  from  the  Jackson  mine  during  the  preceding  winter  on  sleds. 
Part  of  this  ore  Mr.  Crawford  used  for  puddler's  fix  in  his  rolling  mill  at 
New  Castle  operated  by  the  Cosala  Iron  Co.,  and  the  balance  was  used  in  Mr. 
\A  ick's  rolling  mill  at  Youngstown  iov  the  same  purpose.  In  both  cases  it 
was  found  to  be  quite  satisfactory.  A\'ith  the  exception  of  the  ore  that  was 
actually  carried  on  the  backs  of  the  original  discoverers  this  was  the  first  real 
shipment  of  ore  from  the  peninsula. 

'^Alexander  L.  Crawford  was  one  of  the  most  remarkable  men  of  his  time.  Tie  was  always  a 
very  active  man  and  business  was  his  greatest  pleasure.  He  w^as  the  ruling  spirit  in  a  number  of 
enterprises  that  would  be  considered  big  today  and  which  were  proportionately  much  greater  then. 
He  was  born  near  Norristown,  Montgomery  county,  Pennsylvania,  Feb.  5,  181S.  He  came  of  old 
Irish  stock,  his  maternal  great-grandfather  having  migrated  to  this  country  from  Ireland  about  the 
year  1720,  and  settled  near  Norristown,  where  his  grandfather  and  father  were  born.  The  farm 
which  was  the  birthplace  of  the  subject  of  this  sketch  was  in  the  possession  of  the  Crawford 
family  for  nearly  a  century.  Both  Andrew  and  Elizabeth  Crawford,  the  parents  of  Alexander, 
were  natives  of  Montgomery  county,  where  the  father  died  in  1838,  the  mother  having  died  in 
1828.  Andrew  Crawford  carried  on  an  extensive  farm  and  lime-kiln  business  in  Montgomery 
county  up  to  the  period  of  his  deatli.  Alexander  was  raised  on  his  father's  farm  and  worked 
upon  it  until  the  latter's  death  in  August,  1834,  when  he  took  charge  of  the  large  lime-kiln  inter- 
ests of  the  estate,  for  Messrs.  Thomas  and  Hooven,  who  rented  the  property  and  carried  on  the 
business,  which  employed  fifty  men,  and  burned  about  a  thousand  bushels  iier  day  for  three  years. 
Alexander  then  sold  the  property  and  in  1S36,  married  Miss  Mary  R.  List,  of  Montgomery  county. 
He  then  went  into  farming,  in  which  he  continued  until  1841,  when  he  abandoned  that  busi- 
ness as  not  sufficiently  profitable,  sold  his  farm  and  removed  to  New  Castle,  Pa.  The  first 
rolling  mill  in  New  Castle  was  built  in  1839  by  James  D.  White.  !Mr.  Crawford  with  his 
brother  T.  'SI.  Crawford  and  George  K.  Ritter  bought  this  mill  the  day  after  he  arrived  there. 
In  1850  the  Cosala  Iron  Co.  was  organized  with  A.  L.  Crawford  as  president.  It  was  this  mill 
that  used  the  first  shipment  of  ore  from  the  Lake  .Superior  country,  finding  it  quite  satisfactory, 
and  credit  should  be  given  to  ^Nlr.  Crawford  for  this  achievement.  This  mill  was  afterward 
owned  by  Dithridge  &  Co.,  and  still  later  called  the  Etna  Iron  Co.  or  Kimberly  mill,  located 
between  the  Shenango  and  Neshannock  rivers.  In  1864  money  was  plenty  and  everybody  wanted 
to  invest  in  substantial  lines  of  business;  therefore  those  in  which  Mr.  Crawford  was  engaged 
ranked  high.  He  was  so  shrewd  as  to  see  that  this  was  the  time  to  turn  his  capital  at  a 
profit,  and  accordingly  sold  out  at  "war  prices."  In  1842  he  had  purchased  the  Springfield 
furnace,  and  made  charcoal  iron  for  the  use  of  the  rolling  mill,  and  in  1847  he  built  the  Tre- 
r.iont  blast  furnace,  near  Xew  Wilmington,  Lawrence  county,  Pa.,  which  he  sold  out  ten  years 
later.      In    the    summer    of    1853    he    bought    the    Mahoning    furnace    situated    at    Lowellsville,    Ohio. 


50  THE   HONORABLE    PETER   WHITE 

In  the  fall  of  1850  B.  F.  Eaton  and  his  brother,  Watt  Eaton,  arrived 
from  Columbus.  O..  to  show  the  uncouth  denizens  of  the  peninsula  how  pig 
iron  was  made.  They  came  with  men  and  horses  and  supplies  and  a  great 
liourish  of  trumpets  and  leased  the  Jackson  forge.  They  swelled  the  natural 
population  of  Marquette  to  a  considerable  extent,  and,  indeed,  it  had  been 
much  augmented  with  other  arrivals.  The  winter  closed  in  without  any  pro- 
vision for  the  delivery  of  the  mail  on  the  part  of  the  government.  During 
these  latter  days  with  mail  service  every  hour  or  so  this  privation  cannot  be 
appreciated.  It  is  one  of  the  things  which  one  has  to  experience  to  compre- 
hend its  annoyance.  Every  man  at  Marquette  had  either  a  mother  or  wife 
and  children  behind.    To  see  the  winter  inexorably  close  in  and  to  know  that 

He  built  a  railroad  two  miles  to  the  coal  mines  to  cheapen  the  cost  of  the  coal  used  in  the 
furnace.  He  ran  this  furnace  a  month,  when  he  blew  it  out  and  instituted  many  improve- 
ments in  it.  By  bringing  the  gas  down  from  the  tunnel  head  to  the  boilers  and  hot  blast,  he 
was  able  to  make  a  saving  of  $30  a  day;  making  this  the  first  furnace  run  in  the  United  .States 
with  gas,  successfully,  with  the  boilers  and  hot  blast  located  on  the  ground.  The  increased 
quantity  of  iron  per  week  was  from  thirty-five  to  eighty-five  tons,  with  the  same  quantity  of 
blast.  In  ]\[ay,  1864,  he  sold  this  furnace  at  a  good  price.  In  1S68  he  built  the  two  Etna 
furnaces  at  New  Castle,  sold  them  out  in  1872  when  iron  was  high,  and  gave  the  owners  for 
four  years'  interest  ISO  per  cent,  besides  their  original  capital.  In  1S72-4,  he  builf  two  blast 
furnaces  at  Terre  Haute.  Ind.,  one  of  which  was  afterwards  removed  to  Gadsden,  Ala.  In 
1876  he  built  the  Sligo  furnaces,  in  Dent  county.  Mo.,  which  are  still  in  operation,  making  fifty 
tons  of  charcoal  iron  daily.  In  187.S  he  built  the  Wabash  rolling  mill  at  Terre  Haute,  Ind.. 
and  established  the  ^'igo  Iron  Co.  In  the  fall  of  1884  ^Ir.  Crawford  bought  the  Neshannock 
furnace  in  New  Castle.  He  made  many  changes  in  this  furnace,  increasing  the  output  from  750 
to  1,300  tons  per  week  of  Bessemer  pig'.  .\s  early  as  1855  ^Ir.  Crawford  had  sunk  the  first 
coal  shaft  in  Mercer  county.  Pa.,  in  the  block  coal,  which  works  raw  in  the  furnace;  and  in 
1866    he    sank   the    first    coal    shaft    in    the    block    coal    in    Clay    county,    Ind. 

Mr.  Crawford's  remarkable  discernment  in  regard  to  everything  connected  with  his  busi- 
ness was  shown  in  the  year  1857  when  the  first  blast  furnace  was  built  in  Pittsburg  by  Caff, 
Bennett  &  Co.  They  undertook  to  run  the  furnace  on  coke  made  from  Pittsburg  coal.  Mr. 
Crawford  assured  the  firm  that  the  attempt  would  be  unsuccessful,  which  proved  to  be  the  case. 
They  tried  it  for  some  time,  piling  up  iron  which  could  not  be  used,  until  it  grew  to  be  more 
than  they  could  carry.  They  were  in  a  bad  position,  when  Mr.  Crawford  oft'erei  to  get  them 
out  of  the  scrape,  provided  they  would  implicitly  follow  his  directions,  which  they  agreed  to  do. 
lie  sent  them  up  to  Connellsville  to  get  a  coal  bank  to  coke  the  ccal  on  the  ground,  until  they 
could  build  some  ovens,  and  bring  it  to  Pittsburg  and  use  it  in  their  furnace,  when  he  would 
guarantee  they  would  make  good  iron.  All  turned  out  ]:recisely  as  Mr.  Crawford  predicted. 
yiv.  Bennett  was  very  anxious  to  find  ou*"  hov.-  Mr.  Crawford  knew  this,  but  the  latter  would 
not  tell  him,  and  chuckled  over  the  fact  that  he  never  had.  From  that  small  beginning  arose 
the  vast  Connellsville  coke  industry.  Mr.  Crawford  made^  his  first  attempt  at  railroading  when 
he  was  nineteen  years  old.  and  he  put  in  the  first  switch  ever  applied  up  to  tliat  time.  1834, 
for  switching  a  car  or  cars  from  the  main  track.  The  practice  before  that  was  to  have  a  turn- 
table, turn  them  by  hand,  and  run  them  one  at  a  time,  out  at  right  angles  with  the  main 
track.  There  were  at  that  time  just  four  locomotives  in  use  in  the  United  States.  The  Phila- 
dcliihia,  Germantown  &  Norristown  Railroad  liad  the  first  one  built  by  Mr.  Baldwin,  and  called 
the  "Ironsides."  It  only  weighed  c:bout  twelve  tons,  and  had  no  cab.  so  that  the  company 
advertised  that  on  pleasant  days  the  locomotive  would  pidl  the  cars,  but  on  rainy  days  the 
horse  cars  would  run  as  usual.  .Since  that  period  Mr.  Crawford  had  built  the  New  Castle  iS; 
Franklin  Railroad,  and  a  number  of  short  coal  roads,  while  assisting  to  build  the  Voungstown 
&.  Ashtabida  Railroad,  the  Lawrence  Railroad,  the  St.  Louis.  Salem  &  Little  Rock,  the  New  Castle 
&    Beaver    Valley,    and    the    Nashville    &    Kno.xville    Railroad    in    Tctniessee.      One    hundred    miles    of 


PROVING  THE   CLAIMS  TO  THE   IRON   DEPOSITS  51 

one  may  not  hear  from  them  again  until  spring  is  a  condition  which  a 
man  who  lo\'es  his  family  cannot  endure.  The  thought  is  ever  present  that 
something  has  happened  of  which  he  is  not  cognizant.  An  imaginary  evil 
is  always  greater  than  a  real  one.  After  a  month  or  more  had  gone  by 
without  a  mail  the  population  became  restless.  A  council  was  called  in 
the  Marquette  Iron  Co.'s  store  to  consider  the  mail  question.  Everyone 
was  present.  The  Eatons  ofit'ered  to  give  $500  to  establish  a  mail  service 
during  the  winter  and  others  swelled  the  total  to  $1,200.  The  meeting 
disbanded  after  having  instructed  Mr.  Harlow,  the  postmaster,  to  get 
someone  to  go   after  the  mail.  ._^^^ 

Peter  \Miite"s  eyes  had  been  standing  out  like  saucers  at  the  mention 
of  these  enormous  sums  of  money.  When  the  last  man  had  gone  he  turned 
to  Harlow  and  \  olunteered  to  become  the  mail  carrier.  Harlow  laughed 
at  him. 

"Pshaw,"  said  he,  "you're  too  yoimg.  Besides  you're  not  strong 
enough." 

White,  a  powerful,  Inroad-shouldered  man  nowadays,  was  at  that  time 
a  slender  chap.  He  was  full-bearded,  however,  and  looked  more  than  his 
age.  His  dress  was  picturesque.  He  wore  a  red  flannel  shirt  in  winter  and 
a  hickory  shirt  in  summer,  and  in  the  winter  time  wore  moccasins  large 
enough  to  accommodate  two  or  three  pair  of  stockings.  This  was  the  usual 
garb  of  the  pioneer. 

"Will  vou  hold  mv  job  for  me?"  asked  Peter,  who  did  not  want  to  sac- 
rifice his  clerkship  in  the  store. 

this  latter  road  extends  from  Lebanon  to  the  block  coal  fields  of  Overton  county.  These  are 
the  largest  fields  of  that  kind  of  coal  in  the  United  States.  It  will  make  iron  in  the  raw 
state,  as  it  comes  out  of  the  mine.  Mr.  Crawford  was  president  of  the  New  Castle  &  Beaver 
Valley  railroad,  treasurer  and  general  manager  of  the  Nashville  &  Knox\'il!e  railroad,  vice  presi- 
dent of  the  National  Bank  of  Lawrence  County.  Pennsylvania,  vice  president  of  the  Sligo 
Furnace  Co.  of  IMissouri,  president  of  the  Kimberly  Iron  Co.  of  [Michigan,  and  president  of  the 
Crawford  Iron  S:  .Steel  Co.  of  New  Castle.  Mr.  Crawford  had  eight  children,  of  whom  only  two 
are  now  living — Hugh  A.  Crawford,  of  Napa,  Cal.,  and  John  L.  Crawford,  of  New  York.  'Mr. 
Crawford  was  a  pioneer  in  the  three  most  important  industries  in  the  United  States,  the  production 
of  coal  and  iron  and  the  building  of  railroads.  He  saw  these  interests  grow  from  small  beginnings 
to  vast  proportions.  Indeed,  it  is  doubtful  if  the  progress  of  either  would  have  been  so 
rapid  in  the  beginning  of  their  history  were  it  not  for  the  shrewd,  far-seeing  judgment  of  Mr. 
Crawford.  The  states  of  Pennsylvania,  Indiana.  Michigan,  Missouri  and  Tennessee  owe  much 
to  him  for  the  development  of  their  latent  resources  in  time  of  greatest  difficulty.  He  was  a 
man  of  national  reputation  for  the  quickness  and  keenness  of  his  perception,  and  the  accuracy 
of  his  judgment  in  regard  to  all  those  matters  which  he  had  made  a  life-long  study.  Gifted 
with  a  memory  of  marvelous  strength  and  accuracy,  he  could  give  the  cost  of  prospecting  and 
running  coal  mines  from  the  time  the  fields  were  discovered;  and  the  cost  o^  material  and 
building,  and  the  earning  of  every  mile  of  railroad  with  which  he  had  ever  been  connected. 
With  regard  to  these  subjects  he  was  an  indisputable  authority,  sought  after  and  respected, 
far  and  near.  Mr.  Crawford  was  an  immensely  active  man  practically  up  to  the  day  of  his 
death.  He  was  engaged  upon  a  railroad  deal  involving  millions  when  he  was  suddenly  stricken 
with  la  grippe,  which  developed  into  pneumonia,  from  which  he  was  unable  to  rally.  lie  died 
at    New    Castle,    Pa.,    .\pril    1,    1890,    at    the   age    of    seventy-six    years. 


52  THE   HONORABLE   PETER  WHITE 

"Certainly,   I'll   do  that,"   replied   Harlow. 

"Then  I'll  start  the  day  after  tomorrow/'  announced  Peter. 

And  start  he  did.  He  got  two  Indians  to  go  with  him.  His  influence 
with  the  Indians  was  great  and  they  would  have  gone  with  him  to  the  pole. 
Hundreds  of  letters  were  written  by  the  men  when  they  learned  that  Peter 
was  going  to  carry  the  mail.  The  whole  town  saw  him  off.  The  mail  was 
very  heavy,  and  what  with  the  provisions,  which  also  had  to  be  carried, 
made  a  staggering  load  for  his  back.  The  mail  was  taken  to  L'Anse,  where 
other  carriers  were  met.  Peter  established  a  station  where  he  might  meet 
the  carriers  in  the  woods.  It  was  as  primitive  as  it  well  could  be,  Peter 
hanging  the  mail  bag  to  the  limb  of  a  tree  where  the  relay  might  get  it. 
On  the  second  trip  he  secured  a  dog  sled  and  a  team  of  dogs  to  ease  hi? 
burden.  The  sled  was  flat,  like  a  toboggan,  and  the  dogs  were  mongrels, 
stout  curs,  capable  of  making  between  four  and  five  miles  an  hour.  They 
had  to  be  fed  at  short  intervals  to  keep  their  temper  and  spirits  at  normal 
pitch.  They  became  wildly  excited  at  the  scent  of  wolves  and  were  almost 
unmanageable  on  such  occasions.  The  mail  was  securely  strapped  to  the 
sled,  Peter  traveling  alongside  of  it  on  snowshoes,  controlling  the  leading 
dog  by  a  string  rein  and  using  a  staff  to  stop  the  sleigh  by  pushing  it  into 
the  snow.  He  made  nine  of  these  trips  during  the  winter  and  they  furnish 
the  base  for  many  of  the  legends  of  the  upper  peninsula.  The  lore  of  the 
French  Canadian,  in  particular,  is  full  of  stories  of  Peter  and  his  Indians 
and  his  dog  sleds. 

For  these  nine  trips  Peter  received  the  aggregate  sum  of  three  dollars. 
Eaton's  $500  and  the  other  pledges,  amounting  to  $1,200  in  all,  never  ma- 
terialized. They  never  paid  him  a  cent.  Among  those  who  attended  the 
meeting  v/as  Silas  C.  Smith,  who  had  pledged  $3.  ^Meeting  Peter  on  the 
street  one  day  he  gave  him  the  money. 

"What's  this  for?"  asked  Peter. 

"Your  mail  service,"  replied  Smith. 

Peter,  to  Smith's  astonishment,  handed  back  the  money  without  ex- 
j)Ianation. 

"I'll  tell  you  some  day,"  said  he. 

A  year  later  he  told  Smith  that  he  didn't  want  him  to  stand  the  whole 
expense  of  the  nine  trips.  Peter  has  never  regretted  this  experience,  how- 
ever. It  sti-cngthened  his  muscles  and  his  constitution,  and  gave  to  him  that 
wonderful  physical  base  which  even  today  makes  him  one  of  the  most  active 
of  men. 


CHAPTER  V. 

FIRST  ORE  HAULED  FROM  CLEVELAND  MINE. 

T  T  was  during  the  winter  of  1850  that  ore  was  first  hauled  from  the  Cleve- 
land location,  which  was,  as  shown,  claimed  by  the  Marquette  Iron  Co. 
The  ore  had  been  mined  during  the  previous  summer  and  put  into  the  stock 
pile  to  await  the  winter's  haul.  Owing  to  the  abominable  condition  of  the 
roads,  and  in  some  places  to  the  absence  of  any  roads  whatever,  it  was  im- 
possible to  haul  ore  to  the  lake  during  the  summer.  The  Cleveland  mine 
lay  two  miles  beyond  the  Jackson  mine  and  the  distance  was  regarded  as 
a  considerable  item.  During  the  preceding  winter  of  1849  the  snows  had 
been  so  heavy  that  no  attempt  was  made  to  haul  ore  from  the  Cleveland 
mine.  The  little  quantity  that  was  hauled  from  the  Jackson  mine  during 
the  winter  of  1849  ^^''^s  speedily  consumed,  and  the  forge  had  to  suspend 
operations  during  a  part  of  the  summer  for  want  of  ore.  Another  great 
difiicultv  was  the  impossibility  of  keeping  a  sufficient  stock  of  charcoal  on 
hand  to  keep  the  forge  running.  The  charcoal  in  those  days  was  all  bm-ncd 
or  charred  in  pits.  Such  a  thing  as  a  charcoal  kiln  of  brick  or  stone  was 
unknown.  The  deposits  fortunately  needed  no  appliances  such  as  drills 
or  powder  to  work  them.  If  the}"  had  they  probably  would  not  have  been 
worked  as  there  was  neither  drills  nor  powder  in  the  peninsula.  Nature  by 
frost  or  some  other  means  had  loosened  up  thousands  upon  thousands  of 
tons  of  as  pure  ore  as  ever  was  mined,  so  that  any  common  laborer  had 
only  to  pick  it  up  in  his  hands  and  carry  it  to  the  stock-pile.  In  some  in- 
stances the  pieces  had  to  be  sledged  into  smaller  dimensions  in  order  to  be 
lifted  into  the  sleigh.  During  the  winter  of  1850  about  twenty-five  double 
teams  were  employed  in  hauling  the  ore  to  the  forge  at  the  lake,  where  it 
was  crushed  and  then  made  into  bloom  iron,  ready  for  shipment.  This 
venture  of  making  blooms  was  most  disastrous.  The  cost  of  hauling  the 
ore  to  the  lake,  the  cost  of  the  operation  of  the  forge,  the  long  carriage  to 
the  mills  of  Pennsylvania  and  Ohio  made  the  cost  of  the  blooms  so  excessive 
that  it  was  impossible  to  recover.  By  the  time  the  blooms  were  laid  down 
in  Pittsburg  they  had  actually  cost  $200  a  ton  and  the  market  rate  for  iron 


54  THE   HONORABLE   PETER    WHITE 

was  then  $80  a  ton.  None  of  the  ore  itself  was  shipped  below.  This  thought 
had  not  occurred  to  the  pioneers.  In  the  spring  of  1851  Ben  Eaton,  who 
had  come  into  the  country  so  bravely  the  year  before,  fled.  He  went  to  the 
most  remote  corner  of  the  globe  that  he  could  find — Australia — and  so  far 
as  known,  never  returned. 

In  the  summer  of  185 1  Peter  White  went  fishing.  He  might,  indeed, 
have  gone  fishing  all  summer  for  all  there  was  doing.  It  was  a  time  of 
woeful  stagnation.  There  was  no  money  and  little  of  anything  else  in  the 
peninsula.  When  he  returned  from  his  fishing  expedition  he  found  that 
the  county  of  Marquette  had  been  organized  and  that  he  had  been  elected 
county  clerk  and  register  of  deeds.  Peter  protested  that  he  was  not  yet  of 
age.  He  was  promptl}'  told  to  keep  still  about  it,  as  it  was  necessary  that 
the  county  clerk  should  be  a  person  who  could  write  and  that  he  was  one 
of  the  few  who  could.  At  that  time  Peter  would  readily  have  passed  for  a 
man  thirty  years  of  age.  He  wore  a  full  black  beard  which  gave  him  a 
mature  look.  The  appointment  of  clerk  carried  with  it  membership  in  the 
school  board  and  he  was  elected  treasurer  of  that  body,  an  office  which  he 
has  held  continuously  since.  In  the  selection  of  Peter  Wliite  as  county 
clerk  there  was  probably  an  intention  in  the  minds  of  the  inhabitants  of 
Marquette  to  compensate  him  for  services  rendered.  He  had  really  earned 
the  office  of  county  clerk.  Alarquette  had  previously  been  attached  to  Hough- 
ton county,  the  county  seat  of  which  was  Eagle  River.  One  of  Peter's 
thrilling  experiences  had  been  a  trip  to  Eagle  River,  on  foot  and  alone,  to 
get  the  county  clerk's  certificate  to  a  lot  of  legal  documents.  This  intrepid 
young  man,  who  seems  to  have  been  born  without  fear,  went  first  to  L'Anse, 
then  across  the  ice  to  Portage  Entry,  then  up  the  river  and  over  Portage 
lake  and  across  the  portage  to  Eagle  River.  His  business  despatched,  Peter 
prepared  for  the  home  journey. 

■'When  do  you  return?"  asked  Mr.  Kelsey,  the  county  clerk. 

"Tomorrow,"  reolied  Peter. 

"Oh,  no,"  answered  Kelsey,  "we  never  allow  a  winter  visitor  to  de- 
part under  two  weeks.  Moreover,  you  are  the  first  man  that  ever  came  from 
Marquette  up  here  by  land,  and  we  must  give  you  a  good  time." 

Peter  was  somewhat  frightened  by  the  prospect.  He  never  had  been 
a  social  lion  and  he  didn't  want  to  be  one.  He  would  much  rather  have 
been  permitted  to  go  home  quietly,  and  he  thought  for  a  time  of  cutting 
and  running-.  But  thev  wer6  all  so  very  friendly  and  so  courteous  that 
his  fears  were  dismissed.  And,  indeed,  they  very  well  might  be.  The  very 
next  evening  they  gave  a  big  party  in  honor  of  Peter  White  and  scheduled 


FIRST    ORE    HAULED    FRO^r    CLEVELAND    MTXE  55 

an  even  more  elaborate  one  for  the  following  evening.  Peter  protested  that 
his  apparel  was  not  suited  for  parties,  and  for  reply  thev  took  him  to  John 
Senter's  store  and  made  him  don  the  most  elegant  suit  of  clothing  in  his 
shop.  This  round  of  festivitv  continued  for  nine  days.  He  will  tell  you 
candidly  today  that  it  has  not  been  equaled  in  all  his  varied  career  since. 
When  he  came  to  leave  he  was  offered  all  the  silver  specimens  and  agates 
that  he  could  carry.  But  Peter  had  been  attracted  by  the  cuisine,  and,  more- 
over, his  wants  were  very  simple. 

"Let  me  take  two  cans  of  those  elegant  cove  oysters  to  my  Carp 
River  friends,"  said  he,  "and  I  will  be  delighted." 

Peter  worked  his  way  back  as  far  as  Portage  Entry  and  found  the  ice 
in  L'Anse  bay  all  broken  up.  At  that  time  copper  mining  on  Portage  Lake 
had  not  been  dreamed  of.  Upon  his  arrival  at  the  Entry  he  was  laid  up 
for  three  days  with  "le  mal  de  raquette"  or  snow-shoe  sickness.  As  soon  as 
he  could  travel  he  set  out  through  the  woods  for  the  Catholic  mission.  He 
knew  nothing  of  the  route  except  to  keep  in  sight  of  the  bay,  and  this  he 
soon  found  was  impossible,  owing  to  the  impenetrable  nature  of  the  under- 
brush. So  he  struck  back  into  the  woods  for  better  walking.  The  distance 
he  had  to  go  was  seventeen  miles  and  it  seemed  to  him  as  though  he  had 
already  traveled  thirty.  It  was  very  cold,  twenty  degrees  below  zero,  he 
had  had  no  dinner  and  night  was  coming  on.  Pie  crossed  a  little  valley,  and 
as  he  mounted  a  hill,  looked  back  and  caught  the  only  glimpse  of  the  sun 
he  had  had  that  day.  He  knew  that  in  order  to  reach  the  head  of  L'Anse 
bay  he  ought  to  be  going  towards  the  setting  sun  instead  of  from  it.  He 
changed  his  course  in  that  direction  and  presently  came  across  a  single 
snow-shoe  track,  and  was  pleased  to  think  that  he  was  getting  where  some- 
one else  had  so  recently  been.  In  a  little  while  he  crossed  other  tracks,  and 
shortly  thereafter  another,  and  it  soon  dawned  upon  him  that  thev  were  all 
his  own.  He  had  been  traveling  for  hours  in  a  circle,  only  enlarging  it  a 
little  each  time.  It  was  now  growing  dark  rapidly,  and  Peter  had  to  make 
preparations  for  spending  the  night  with  the  wdld  beasts  of  the  forest. 
He  had  no  axe  or  provisions,  except  the  two  cans  of  cove  oysters,  but  for- 
tunately he  had  a  few  matches.  He  succeeded  in  starting  a  fire  at  the  foot 
of  a  dead  cedar  that  leaned  over  into  the  forks  of  a  hemlock,  and  as  fast  as 
it  would  burn  to  a  coal  it  would  slide  down  a  little  and  thus  replenish  itself. 
Peter  w^as  too  much  excited  to  be  either  tired  or  hungry  that  night.  He 
slept  a  little  in  an  upright  or  sitting  posture  before  the  fire.  The  snow  was 
about  five  feet  deep.  He  had  shaped  an  indentation  of  his  own  figure  like 
a  chair  into  the  snow  and  lined  it  with  balsam  sprigs,  so  that  it  was  quite 


56  THE  HONORABLE   PETER  WHITE 

comfortable.  In  the  morning'  Peter  broke  every  blade  of  his  congress 
knife  in  trying  to  open  the  cans  of  oysters.  Failing  in  the  attempt,  he 
boiled  them  in  the  can  and  endeavored  to  eat  them.  Endeavored  is  used 
advisedly.  He  did  not  eat  them.  They  refused  to  be  eaten.  They  would 
not  stay  upon  his  stomach. 

Bishop  Baraga  had  left  the  Entry  after  Peter,  and  therefore  knew  that 
he  was  either  hurt  or  lost.  He  sent  an  Indian  after  him.  The  Indian  found 
him  about  3  o'clock  and  took  him  to  the  mission.* 

*Peter  White  wrote  the  following  account  of  the  adventure  for  Rev.  A.  J.  Rezek's  "History 
of    the    Diocese    of    Sault    Ste.    Marie    and    Marquette": 

Over  fifty  years  ago,  one  winter,  I  was  making  my  way  to  Keweenaw  county;  that 
trail  led  us  from  L'Anse  by  way  of  the  Portage  Entry,  Portage  River,  and  from  there  overland 
to  Eagle  River.  In  crossing  Portage  Lake  I  met,  or  rather  overtook  Father  Baraga  and  his 
guide,  on  their  way  to  Eagle  Harbor.  .'\s  I  spoke  the  Chippewa  langauge,  Father  Baraga  seemed 
delighted  to  meet  me  and  in  course  of  our  conversation,  while  walking  on,  he  most  cordially 
invited  me  to  call  on  him  at  the  Mission,  and  I  cheerfully  promised  him  that  I  would  at  the 
first  opportunity.  This  was  my  first  intimate  acquaintance  with  Baraga,  though  I  had  met  him 
before,  I  believe  the  first  time  in  Abner  Sherman's  store  at  L'Anse.  We  separated  then,  after 
going  a  few  miles  together,  because  my  party  of  three  wanted  to  go  faster  than  Father  Baraga 
was  taking  it.  I  spent  two  weeks  at  Keweenaw  Point — and  other  points — on  my  way  back  I 
stopped  over  night  with  one  of  the  two  men  who  lived  at  "the  Entry"  and  started  about  eight 
o'clock  next  morning  for  L'Anse.  I  soon  found  the  swamps  that  bordered  the  shore  impene- 
trably thickly  wooded  so  that  I  preferred  to  wade  along  the  shoie  in  the  water.  Finding  the 
water  too  cold  for  traveling  convenience,  I  struck  inland  and  to  my  satisfaction  saw  an  open 
space  of  considerable  size.  Without  hesitation  I  took  for  the  open  route  and  passing  from  one 
to  the  other  I  must  have  struck  and  crossed  seven  or  eight  of  these  marshes.  It  was  splendid 
snow  shoeing!  I  followed  them  regardless  of  proper  direction  and  bye  and  bye  I  struck  nice 
hardwood  timber  and  traveled  on  faster  and  faster  realizing  that  I  must  have  lost  some  time  on 
the  meadows.  I  had  not  seen  sun  all  that  day:  at  4  p.  m.  I  came  to  a  little  valley — a  brook 
running  through  its  bottom — I  crossed  the  brook  and  ascended  the  little  fifteen  or  twenty-foot 
hill  on  the  other  side,  and  as  I  got  to  the  top,  to  my  astonishment,  I  noticed  the  bright  reflec- 
tion of  the  sun  on  the  trees  ahead  of  me!  I  knew  at  once  that  in  order  to  reach  L'Anse — the 
head  of  the  Bay — I  should  have  been  going  west,  towards  the  setting  sun.  So  I  turned  back, 
crossed  the  brook  again  and  struck  fast  in  the  direction  of  the  last  glimpse  I  had  of  the  sun. 
In  fifteen  or  twenty  minutes  I  found  a  snow-shoe  trail  and  said  to  myself  "now  I  am  all 
right  again,"  but  in  another  twenty  minutes  I  struck  another  trail.  I  then  measured  the  tracks 
with  my  own  snow-shoe  and  to  my  dismay  foimd  that  I  was  the  fellow  who  was  running 
around  in  a  circle.  By  this  time  it  was  getting  rapidly  dark.  I  was  in  possession  of  a  good 
double  blanket  and  had  plenty  of  matches,  but  no  axe.  However,  I  experienced  no  trouble 
finding  enough  dead  limbs  to  make  a  roaring  fire;  but  did  not  sleep  much  that  night.  I  realized 
that  I  was  lost  and  did  not  know  which  way  to  go,  except,  perhaps,  to  follow  my  tracks  of 
the  day  before,  some  twenty  odd  miles  back  to  the  Portage  Entry,  if  I  could  find  them  again. 
I  had  two  cans  of  oysters,  one  I  had  already  eaten.  In  the  morning  about  seven  o'clock  I  was 
about  to  start  on  my  exploration  when  I  heard  an  Indian  yell  off  to  the  left  and  soon  another 
one  to  the  right.  I  kept  answering  them  and  in  twenty  minutes  two  Indians  reached  me  from 
opposite  directions.  "The  priest  sent  us  to  find  you,"  they  said,  and  in  less  than  an  hour  I 
was  in  Father  Baraga's  house.  F"ather  Baraga  returning  from  his  tramp  to  Eagle  Harbor  arrived 
at  the  Entry  an  hour  after  I  left  there;  they  did  not  follow  my  trail,  for  they  knew  a  better 
one,  consequently  arrived  at  the  Mission  that  night.  Father  Baraga  knew  that  I  had  not  passed 
there  and  at  once  surmised  that  I  must  be  in  the  woods  and  had  probably  lost  my  way.  So 
he  sent  those  two  Indians  to  look  for  me  next  morning  as  soon  as  they  could  see.  Father 
Baraga  did  me  a  good  turn,  and  perhaps  actually  saved  my  life.  If  my  strength  did  not  fail 
me,  I  could  have  gotten  out  before  night.  Still,  I  often  say  that  "he  saved  my  life."  Hence 
my    debt    of    gratitude. 


CHAPTER  VI. 

PETER  WHITE  BECOMES  POSTMASTER. 

■yVZ  H.  BRUCE  was  the  general  mail  contractor  for  the  upper  peninsula 
with  headquarters  at  Green  Bay,  Wis.  In  widely-scattered  and  prim- 
itive settlements  the  government  has  a  habit  of  letting  the  distribution  of 
the  mail  by  contract.  It  saves  the  bother  of  Washington  forever  seeking 
or  finding  a  man  for  some  place  which  is  so  small  as  not  to  be  even  defi- 
nitely located  upon  the  map.  So  W.  H.  Bruce  of  Green  Bay,  Wis.,  was 
in  general  charge  of  the  mails  for  the  upper  peninsula.  The  forwarding 
of  the  mails  in  the  winter  time  didn't  worry  Bruce  much,  for  he  realized 
the  utter  impossibility  of  reaching  some  of  the  more  remote  settlements 
through  the  great  banks  of  soft  and  yielding  snow.  And  so  it  happened 
that  during  certain  seasons  of  the  year  Marquette  and  vicinity  were  shut 
out  from  the  rest  of  the  world.  \\'hen  Bruce  examined  his  lists  he  came 
across  P.  ^I.  Everett's  letter  resigning  the  postmastership  of  Carp  River, 
which  had  been  forwarded  to  him  by  the  postoffice  department. 

"Carp  River  is  vacant,"  said  he  to  himself.  Bruce  knew  or  thought 
he  knew  that  Carp  River  was  quite  an  important  settlement  in  the  rising 
iron  country.  He  had  heard  a  great  deal  of  it.  He  had  not  heard  of  the 
processes  of  decav  wdiich  had  already  resulted  in  its  virtual  abandonment. 
Meanwhile  Mr.  Harlow  had  secured  the  definite  appointment  as  postmaster 
of  Marquette.  Bruce  accordingly  cast  about  for  a  postmaster  at  Carp 
River.  Peter  White's  father  was  managing  Bruce's  business  at  Green 
Bay,  and  it  was  very  natural  that  he  should  think  of  Peter  White.  As  a 
matter  of  fact,  he  couldn't  think  of  anyone  else,  for  Peter  White  was  the 
only  person  he  positively  knew  to  exist  in  the  peninsula.  Accordingly  he 
instructed  the  postoffice  department  to  appoint  Peter  White  postmaster  at 
Carp  River.  It  never  occurred  to  him  to  say  anything  to  Peter  White 
about  it.  The  entire  population  of  Marquette  was  therefore  considerably 
astonished  when  the  first  vessel  to  arrive  in  the  spring  of  1852  brought  a 
formidable  lookins:  letter,  thick  and  bulkv,  bearing  the  seal  of  the  United 
States   government,    stamped    free,    and    addressed    in   big   handwriting   to 


58  THE   HONORABLE   PETER  WHITE 

Peter  White.  Peter  was  the  most  astonished  of  all.  He  did  not  suppose 
that  anyone  beyond  his  circumscribed  little  world  had  ever  heard  of  him,  and 
especially  not  so  mysterious  and  mighty  an  institution  as  the  United  States 
government.  It  was  the  use  of  the  franking  privilege  that  bewildered  him, 
for  he  was  the  first  person  to  be  ever  so  addressed  in  the  peninsula.  Peter 
flatly  declined  to  open  the  letter.  He  was  afraid  of  it.  He  said  that  he 
hadn't  done  anything  against  the  government  and  he  didn't  want  the  gov- 
ernm_ent  to  do  anything  to  him.  Moreover  he  did  not  want  to  put  him- 
self in  the  position  of  being  responsible  to  the  government  for  any  of  his 
acts  and  he  felt  that  he  would  be  if  he  opened  the  letter.  He  declared  that 
it  was  perfectly  clear  that  the  letter  was  not  intended  for  him  even  if  it 
bore  his  name.  There  had  been  some  mistake  to  which  he  did  not  care  to 
be  a  party. 

Letters  in  those  days  of  infrequent  mails  were  common  property,  and 
a  town  meeting  was  held  to  discuss  the  purport  of  the  prodigious  document 
addressed  to  Peter  White.  The  meeting  was  held  in  Peter's  boarding  house, 
and  Mr.  Jacobs,  a  somewhat  forceful  character,  acted  as  chairman. 

"I  will  open  the  letter,"  said  Jacobs,  "and  take  the  consequence." 

Jacobs  opened  the  letter  and  read : 

Post  Office  Department, 

Appointment  Office, 
Washington.  Oct.  13th,  1851. 
Sir:— 

The  Postmaster  General  has  re-established  a  post  office  by  the  name  of 
Carp  River,  in  the  County  of  Carp  River  and  State  of  Michigan,  and  ap- 
pointed you  Postmaster  thereof,  in  which  capacity  you  will  be  authorized  to 
act  upon  complying  with  the  following  rec[uirements : 

1st.  To  execute  the  enclosed  bond,  and  cause  it  to  be  executed  by  two 
sufficient  sureties,  in  the  presence  of  suitable  witnesses,  and  the  sufficiency  of 
the  sureties  to  be  certified  by  a  qualified  magistrate. 

2nd.  To  take  and  subscribe  the  oath  or  affirmation  of  office  enclosed, 
before  a  magistrate,  who  will  certify  the  same. 

3rd.  To  exhibit  your  bond  and  qualification,  executed  and  certified  as 
aforesaid,  to  the  Postmaster  of  Marquette  and  then  to  deposit  them  in 
the  mail,  addressed  to  me. 

You  will  then  be  entitled  to  enter  upon  the  duties  of  the  office  without 
waiting  for  a  commission. 

A  mail  key  is  enclosed.  Blanks  will  be  sent  from  the  P.  M.  at  Buffalo, 
N.  Y. 


PETER    WHITE    BECOAIES    POSTMASTER  59 

After  the  receipt,  at  this  Department,  of  your  bond  and  qualification, 
duly  executed  and  certified,  and  the  approval  of  the  same  by  the  Postmaster 
General,  a  commission  will  be  sent  to  you. 

It  will  be  your  duty  to  continue  in  the  charge  of  the  office,  either  per- 
sonally or  by  assistant,  vmtil  you  are  relieved  from  it  by  the  consent  of  the 
Department,  which  will  be  signified  by  the  discontinuance  of  your  office, 
or  the  appointment  of  your  successor. 

\'ery  respectfully. 

Your  obedient  servant, 
FiTz  Henry  Warren, 

Second  Assistant  Postmaster  General. 
Peter  White,  Esq. 

If  Peter  had  been  alarmed  before  he  was  greatly  mystified  now.  He 
could  not  conceive  how  the  government  could  have  possibly  become  pos- 
sessed of  his  name. 

"It  isn't  meant  for  me  and  I'll  not  accept  the  office,"  said  Peter. 

Jacobs  without  replying  read  aloud  again  the  provisions  of  the  appoint- 
ment. He  came  to  the  clause  which  provides  that  the  appointee  must  receive 
the  indorsement  of  the  postmaster  of  Marquette.  Jacobs  knew  that  it  would 
be  useless  to  refer  the  matter  to  Harlow  for  indorsement,  because  Harlow 
knew  that  there  was  no  necessity  for  a  postmaster  at  Carp  River. 

Jacobs  was  lost  in  thought  for  a  moment  and  then  said : 

"We  will  send  this  appointment  for  indorsement  to  Mr.  Ashmun,  the 
postmaster  at  the  Sault.    And  we'll  all  sign  it." 

Capt.  Caldwell  volunteered  to  take  the  application  to  the  Sault.  In  the 
course  of  two  or  three  weeks  a  mail  bag  with  complete  postal  equipment 
came  for  Peter  White,  together  with  his  .appointment  as  postmaster  at  Carp 
River.  Peter  viewed  his  new  office  with  considerable  fear.  He  was  afraid 
that  his  employer,  Mr.  Harlow,  postmaster  of  Marquette,  would  incon- 
tinently discharge  his  clerk,  the  postmaster  of  Carp  River.  But  Harlow 
took  no  cognizance  of  his  rival.  All  mail,  of  course,  came  to  the  village  of 
^Marquette.  Gradually,  it  was  noted,  however,  that  more  mail  was  addressed 
to  the  postoffice  at  Carp  River  than  was  addressed  to  Marquette.  A  circum- 
stance which  aided  this  diversion  of  the  mail  was  the  fact  that  Harlow  held 
the  postoffice  in  his  house.  There  was  ever  present,  therefore,  that  deli- 
cacy which  prevents  a  man  from  freely  entering  another  one's  home,  even 
when  public  afifairs  call  him  there.  Peter  held  his  postoffice  in  the  store, 
where  everyone,  of  course,  felt  himself  free.  The  residents  of  Marquette 
were  putting  the  words  "Carp  River"  on  their  letter  heads  while  writing. 


60  THE  HONORABLE  PETER  WHITE 

The  diversion  of  the  mail  eventually  became  so  complete  that  Harlow  was 
merely  receiving  and  transmitting  the  mail  of  his  own  family.  The  stamp 
of  the  Marquette  postoffice  was  therefore  'placed  upon  an  extremely 
limited  number  of  letters,  while  the  stamp  of  the  Carp  River  postoffice  on 
an  adjoining  lot  was  being  imprinted  upon  hundreds.  The  postoffice  de- 
partment finally  concluded  that  the  population  of  Marquette  was  well  nigh 
extinct  but  that  the  population  of  Carp  River  was  growing  rapidly.  When 
the  postal  department  reached  this  conclusion  it  notified  Mr.  Harlow  that 
the  postoffice  at  Marquette  would  be  discontinued  as  follows : 

Post  Office  Department, 

Appointment  Office, 
August  20th,  1852. 
Sir:— 

I  have  the  honor  to  inform  you  that  the  Postmaster  General  has  dis- 
continued the  Post  Office  at  "Marquette,"  Marquette  Co.,  Michigan,  of 
which  A.  B.  Harlow  was  Postmaster.  This  leaves  "Carp  River"  with  Peter 
White  as  Postmaster  for  that  town. 

I  am  very  respectfully, 

Your  obedient  servant, 
Nathan  G.  King, 
Acting  First  Assistant  P.  M.  General. 

This  constitutes  probabl}-  the  only  instance  on  record  where  a  town  of 
1,500  inhabitants  had  two  postoffices.  The  mail  of  Marquette  continued 
to  bear  the  Carp  River  stamp  for  some  time  thereafter,  or  indeed  until  the 
inhabitants  suggested  to  Peter  White  the  advisability  of  writing  to  \\'as]i- 
ington  and  having  the  name  of  the  Carp  River  postoffice,  formally  changed 
to  Marquette.  This  was  later  done,  and  Peter  White  continued  in  office 
as  postmaster  altogether  for  twelve  years. 


CH7\PTER  VU. 

FIRST  LAKE  SHIPMENT  OF  IKON  ORE 

HTHE  pioneers  in  the  iron  industry  in  the  peninsula  had  httle  money. 
There  was  no  influx  of  eastern  capital  to  help  them  over  the  periods 
of  depression.  They  were  compelled  to  take  all  the  knocks  that  adversity 
had  to  administer,  and  some  of  them  were  pretty  severe.  The  weaker 
failed ;  but  those  who  had  faith  in  the  ultimate  development  of  the  mines 
gripped  a  tighter  hold  and  hung  on.  Men  placed  in  crucibles  of  fire  come 
out  either  heroes  or  villains.  The  cruel  process  develops  some  and  destroys 
others.  The  struggle  certainly  bred  a  race  of  hardy  men  and  a  few  of  them 
were  even  great.  Peter  White,  the  boy,  had  the  advantage  of  association 
with  those  men,  and  could  not  fail  to  be  improved  by  it. 

It  has  been  told  that  the  only  method  of  bringing  ore  to  the  lake 
from  the  mines  was  by  means  of  sleighs  during  the  winter  time.  It  became 
apparent  that  if  any  considerable  business  was  to  be  done  the  means  of 
communication  would  have  to  be  improved.  The  average  load  of  a  sleigh 
was  3,600  pounds,  or  a  little  less  than  ij/2  gross  tons,  and  it  was  impossible 
for  a  team  to  make  more  than  one  trip  a  day.  Indeed  the  whole  winter's 
haul  rarely  exceeded  1,000  tons.  Morever,  it  began  to  be  apparent  that 
the  great  business  of  the  region  was  to  be  done  in  the  mining  and  shipping 
of  ore,  and  not  in  the  manufacture  of  blooms.  Among  the  men  attracted 
to  the  peninsula  was  Heman  B.  Ely,  who,  as  soon  as  he  saw  the  deposits 
recognized  the  need  of  a  railway.  He  approached  both  the  Cleveland  and 
Jackson  iron  mining  companies  upon  the  subject,  and  in  November,  1851, 
drew  up  an  agreement  wherein  he  agreed  to  build  a  railway  from  Mar- 
quette to  the  Jackson  and  Cleveland  mines  in  consideration  of  receiving  the 
carrying  trade  of  both  companies  at  certain  reasonable  rates  of  toll.  The 
companies  agreed  to  pay  $1  per  ton  for  the  transportation  of  ore  over 
the  road  during  the  first  two  years  and  50  cents  thereafter  until  the  amount 
reached  an  annual  total  of  70,000  tons,  when  a  graded  rate  gradually  di- 
minishing to  30  cents,  when  125,000  tons  per  annum  had  been  reached, 
should  obtain.     This  road  was  to  be  known  as  the  Green  Bay  &  Lake  Su- 


62  THE  HONORABLE  PETER  WHITE 

perior  Railroad  Co.,  a  title  which  sufficiently  indicates  that  Mr.  Ely  had  in 
mind  its  extension  to  that  other  ore  outlet  upon  Lake  Michigan.  Mr.  Ely, 
however,  had  difficulty  in  enlisting  capital  in  the  enterprise.  Men  with 
monev  looked  coldly  upon  the  project  of  building  a  railroad  in  a  wilderness 
and  the  undertaking  consequently  lagged.  Money  was,  indeed,  so  stringent 
that  upon  one  occasion  in  1852  Mr.  Ely  had  to  sell  some  of  his  provisions  in 
order  to  obtain  the  means  wherewith  to  get  out  of  the  country.  This  act 
caused  Air.  Tower  Jackson,  the  first  mining  agent  of  The  Cleveland  Iron 
Mining  Co.,  to  deliver  a  philippic  against  steam  railroads  in  general,  and  to 
declare  that  a  plank  road  was  precisely  what  the  region  needed.  He  main- 
tained that  a  plank  road  would  promote  agriculture  in  that  it  would  be  of 
direct  benefit  to  the  farmers  and  would  stimulate  ore  shipments  in  that 
it  would  provide  a  means  of  communication  to  the  mines  all  the  year  round. 
A  steam  railroad  he  insisted  would  merely  fill  the  pockets  of  eastern  capi- 
talists and  ruin  the  iron  country.  To  Air.  Jackson  belongs  the  credit  of 
having  first  suggested  the  plank  road,  now  of  historic  memory.''' 

Aleanwhile  Peter  White  performed  an  important  act.  He  made  a  bit 
of  history.  He  wrote  the  bill  of  lading  of  one  of  the  earliest  shipments  of 
ore  that  ever  left  the  upper  peninsula.  The  shipment  consisted  of  six  bar- 
rels and  was  consigned  to  B.  L.  Webb  of  Detroit,  by  the  Alarquette  Iron 
Co.  It  was  shipped  to  Sault  Ste.  Alarie  on  the  steamer  Baltimore.  This 
bill  of  lading  has  fortunately  been  preserved,  and  in  now  hanging  on  the 
wall  in  the  office  of  Oglebay,  Xorton  &  Co.,  Wade  Building,  Cleveland,  in 
an  appropriate  frame.     A  fac-simile  of  it  is  herewith  reproduced. 

The  Cleveland  and  Jackson  companies  waited  patiently  for  over  a 
year  for  Ely  to  begin  the  construction  of  his  railroad,  and  perceiving 
no  signs  of  any  movement  on  his  part,  undertook  jointly  the  con- 
struction of  a  plank  road  from  the  lake  to  the  mines.  This  was  a  con- 
siderable undertaking  and  was  prosecuted  with  as  much  vigor  as  any  un- 
dertaking could  be  which  was  nearly  1,000  miles  removed  from  the  super- 
vision of  the  home  office  and  which  had  to  be  built  under  adverse  financial 

^I'ollowinc;    is   the    context    of   Jackson's    letter    to    the    Cleveland    company: 

"Dec.     5,     1832. 

"We  want  a  plank  road  to  the  Cleveland  mountain.  It  would  be  better  than  a  railroad, 
for  if  we  had  a  plank  road  we  could  haul  the  year  around  and  the  farmers  can  haul  you  all 
the  coal  you  want  which  you  cannot  transport  on  a  railroad.  A  plank  road  would  build  up  you 
a  nice  town  and  a  railroad  will  not.  One  hundred  teams  which  would  run  daily  on  a  plank 
road  would  occupy  a  good  many  men  and  teams  and  the  people  would  settle  here  and  clear  up 
farms,  make  coal  and  haul  their  product  to  market,  and  that  would  make  the  country  prosperous; 
but  a  railroad  will  fill  the  pockets  of  a  few  eastern  men  and  that  would  be  an  end  to  your 
business.  The  only  prospect  of  a  railroad  in  my  opinion  is  that  it  never  will  be  built.  Mr. 
Ely,  the  agent,  had  to  sell  some  of  his  flour  to  get  money  to  go  down  with  at  $5.50  per  barrel 
when    he    had    just    come    from    below.      I    think    tliat    looks    squally." 


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FIRST    LAKE    SHIPMENT    OF    IRON    ORE  65 

circumstances.  Director  after  director  of  the  Cleveland  and  Jackson  com- 
panies visited  the  iron  region  to  superintend  the  work  and  the  most  ener- 
getic of  all  was  Dr.  Morgan  L.  Hewitt,  the  first  president  of  the  Cleveland 
Company. 

Anoth.er  undertaking  which  like  the  railroad  seemed  almost  a  dream 
was  the  construction  of  a  canal  around  the  rapids  of  the  St.  Mary's  river, 
connecting  Lake  Superior  and  Lake  Huron.  It  was  a  dream  because  it 
had  been  discussed  for  years  and  seemed  no  nearer  realization  than  in  the 
beginning.  There  was  absolutelv  no  sympathy  in  Washington  with  the 
enterprises  of  the  peninsula.  Daniel  Webster's  declaration,  that  never 
would  he  vote  one  penny  to  bring  the  bleak,  barren,  rocky  and  uninhabitable 
shores  of  California  one  step  nearer  Boston,  was  on  a  par  with  a  similar 
declaration  of  Henrv  Clay,  who,  in  discussing  the  project  to  build  a  canal 
around  the  rapids  of  St.  Mary's  river,  to  use  his  express  language,  said 
th.at  it  was  "a  work  beyond  the  remotest  settlements  in  the  LTnited  States, 
if  not  in  the  moon."  Clouded  and  confused  opinions  also  obtained  in  the 
minds  of  statesmen  as  to  the  constitutional  rights  of  congress  to  improve 
rivers  and  harbors  and  to  construct  canals  around  rapids — opinions  which 
seem  strange  nowadays  but  ivliich  were  nevertheless  sufficiently  potent  at 
the  time  to  split  political  conventions  asunder. 

The  discovery  of  iron,  however,  following  that  of  copper,  brought  its 
commercial  importance  more  clearly  before  Congress.  The  iron  pioneers 
had  sent  John  Burt  to  Washington  to  lobby  for  the  measure.  In  1852  Con- 
gress granted  the  State  of  ]Michigan  750.000  acres  of  land  for  the  purpose 
of  aiding  in  the  construction  of  a  canal  around  the  falls  of  St.  Mary's  river, 
and  in  consideration  of  it  a  number  of  gentlemen  undertook  the  construction 
of  the  canal,  as  will  be  related  shortly. 

In  May,  1853,  the  Marquette  Iron  Co.  gave  up  the  ghost  and  Dr. 
Morgan  L.  Hewitt  moved  his  small  familv  to  Marquette — two  most  impor- 
tant events  in  the  life  of  Peter  Wliite — for  through  the  first  he  became  con- 
nected with  the  Cleveland  Company  and  through  the  second  he  met  Ellie 
Hewitt,  Dr.  Hewitt's  daughter.  The  Marquette  Iron  Co.  had  had  a  hard 
time  of  it.  Mr.  W.  A.  Fisher,  the  capitalist  of  the  company,  gradually  lost 
heart  when  he  found  that  the  Cleveland  company  had  really  a  prior  right 
to  the  claim  and  his  support  for  two  years  had  only  been  lukewarm.  It  was 
a  constant  drain  upon  his  resources,  with  mighty  slim  chances  of  any  return, 
and  he  welcomed  the  opportunity  extended  to  him  bv  the  Cleveland  company 
to  reimburse  him  for  the  improvement  which  he  had  made.  Indeed  the 
Cleveland   company  exhibited  the   utmost   generositv   toward   its   rival.     It 


66  THE  HONORABLE   PETER  WHITE 

purchased  the  assets  of  the  Marquette  company  and  incidentally  purchased 
Peter  White,  who  was  keeping  the  store  for  the  Marquette  company.  All 
the  stockholders  of  the  Marquette  company  were  satisfied,  with  the  ex- 
ception of  Graveraet,  who  recognized  in  it  the  bursting  of  his  industrial 
bubble.  Included  in  the  assets  of  the  Marquette  company  was  the  lease 
for  the  undivided  one-half  interest  in  the  Lake  Superior  location,  which 
Graveraet  had  secured  from  Burt.  Graveraet  insisted  that  he  had  never 
received  any  consideration  for  this  interest,  and  that  it  was  no  part  of  the 
Marquette  company's  property.  He  claimed  it  as  a  part  of  his  individual 
estate,  which  the  Marquette  company,  not  being  an  incorporated  body,  had 
no  right  to  transfer,  and  his  contention  was  sufficient  to  give  the  Cleveland 
company  considerable  concern,  though  it  was  later  effectually  quieted  by 
Peter  White. 


CHAPTER  VIII. 

FIRST  USE  OF  THE  ORE  IN  PENNSYLVANIA  AND  OHIO. 

T  T  has  been  related  that  Peter  White  shipped  six  barrels  of  ore  to  B.  L. 
Webb,  the  secretary  of  The  Jackson  Iron  Co.,  in  1852.  It  might  be  well 
to  follow  these  early  shipments  and  trace  them  through  the  furnaces  of  Ohio 
and  Pennsylvania  because  they  certainly  constitute  the  first  use  of  Lake 
Superior  ore  in  a  blast  furnace.  In  September,  1853,  the  Cleveland  com- 
pany shipped  to  the  Sharon  Iron  Co.,  Sharon,  Pa.,  152  tons  of  ore  for  use 
in  its  blast  furnace.  It  took  four  vessels  to  move  the  ore  from  Marquette 
to  Sault  Ste.  Marie,  where  it  was  portaged  over  the  falls.  It  was  landed 
at  Erie,  Pa.,  and  sent  by  canal  to  Sharon.  The  first  boat  load  was  delivered 
at  the  Sharpsville  furnace,  owned  by  David  and  J.  F.  Agnew.  Describing 
the  event  David  Agnew  wrote : 

"The  ore  was  used  in  the  furnace  partly  alone  and  partly  in  mixture 
with  native  ores  and  the  experiment  was  highly  successful,  the  furnace 
working  well  and  producing  an  increased  yield  of  metal,  which  was  taken 
CO  the  Sharon  Iron  Works  and  there  converted  into  bar  iron  and  nails  of 
very  superior  quality.  The  second  boat  load  was  also  brought  to  Sharps- 
ville, but  having  been  intended  to  be  left  at  the  Clay  furnace,  owned  by 
the  Sharon  Iron  Co.,  was  returned  and  used  at  the  establishment." 

General  J.  P.  Curtis,  president  of  the  Sharon  Iron  Co.,  wrote  the  fol- 
lowing letter  to  the  Cleveland  Iron  Mining  Co.  concerning  the  test : 

"As  you  are  anxious  to  hear  the  result  of  our  test  of  Lake  Superior 
ore  in  a  blast  furnace,  I  hasten  to  give  it  to  you.  It  was  fully  successful, 
more  than  we  asked  for.  We  worked  the  furnace  for  several  days  on 
Lake  Superior  ore  entire,  no  mixture  whatever  with  it.  and  yielded  fully 
80  per  cent  of  metal  per  ton.  We  have  not  tried  the  metal,  but  it  looks  very 
well  and  there  is  no  doubt  of  its  quality.  This  settles  the  question  as  to 
the  matter  of  converting  the  ore  and  calls  for  a  road  at  once.  There  are 
furnaces  now  built  on  the  canals,  on  the  Cleveland  and  Erie,  to  use  all 
the  ore  that  we  can  mine  the  first  year  and  there  should  be  no  delay  in 
pushing  our  road  and  dock." 


68  THE  HONORABLE  PETER  WHITE 

It  was  indeed  the  very  circumstance  of  this  initial  success  that  changed 
the  destiny  of  the  old  plank  road.  It  was  decided  to  convert  it  into  a 
strap  railroad  at  once  and  the  rails  were  accordingly  sent  up  from  Sharon. 

Fierce  has  raged  the  controversy  as  to  whether  these  early  shipments 
were  really  successfully  smelted  as  far  as  furnace  practice  is  concerned. 
The  iron  produced  was  of  good  quality,  but  it  left  the  furnace  in  a  bad 
state.  It  must  be  remembered  that  the  blast  furnaces  of  those  early  days 
bore  little  relation  to  the  blast  furnaces  of  today.  Mr.  Frank  Allen,  the 
manager  of  Clay  furnace,  has  always  insisted  that  the  initial  working  of 
Lake  Superior  ore  at  the  Sharpsville  furnace  in  1853,  was  not  a  success. 
In  a  letter  to  the  Sharpsville  Advertiser  he  wrote : 

"On  the  last  day  of  November,  1853,  one  of  the  proprietors  of  the 
Sharpsville  furnaces  said  to  me  that  they  had  tried  more  experiments  with 
that  ore  than  had  been  profitable  and  that  they  would  never  put  another 
pound  of  it  into  their  furnace.  The  same  day  Samuel  Clark  boated  a  load 
of  the  ore  from  the  Sharpsville  furnace  to  the  Clay  furnace  landing.  We 
put  it  through  the  furnace  and  sent  the  product  to  Sharon.  The  next  sea- 
son all  the  Lake  Superior  ore  left  over  at  Sharpsville  furnace  was  sent  over 
to  us  and  during  the  years  1854-55  and  until  August,  1856,  we  had  used 
in  all  about  400  tons  of  Lake  Superior  ore,  some  of  it  alone  but  most  of  it 
mixed  with  other  ores  and  up  to  that  time  the  working  of  it  was  not  a 
success.  In  October,  1856,  we  gave  Clay  furnace  a  general  overhauling, 
putting  in  new  lining  and  hearth,  and  made  material  changes  in  the  con- 
struction of  the  same,  put  her  in  blast  late  in  the  fall  and  in  a  few  days 
were  making  a  beautiful  article  out  of  iron  from  Lake  Superior  ore  alone, 
and  this  was  then  considered  to  be  the  first  real  and  successful  working  of 
Lake  Superior  ore  in  a  blast  furnace." 

When  Mr.  David  Agnew  saw  this  article  in  the  newspapers  he  replied 
as  follows : 

'T  have  no  desire  to  engage  in  newspaper  controversy  with  Mr.  Allen 
in  regard  to  the  first  successful  working  of  Lake  Superior  ore  in  the  blast 
furnace ;  still  I  cannot  let  his  article  pass  unnoticed.  I  should  have  re- 
plied sooner  but  wished  to  hear  from  my  brother,  J.  P.  Agnew,  before 
doing  so.  My  brother  and  myself  were  the  proprietors  of  the  Sharpsville 
furnace  at  the  time  referred  to.     He  writes : 

"  T  notice  Mr.  Allen's  article  published  in  the  Sharpsville  paper  and 
am  greatly  surprised  at  its  contents  and  am  sorry  to  have  to  contradict 
his  statements.  All  the  circumstances  connected  with  that  event  (the  work- 
ing of  the  ore)  are  as  fresh  in  my  memory  as  if  they  had  transpired  within 


FIRST  USE  OF  THE   ORE   IN   PENNSYLVANIA  AND    OHIO        69 

the  last  month.  Cy  arrangement  with  Gen.  Curtis,  president  of  the  Sharon 
Iron  Co.,  and  at  his  desire,  as  well  as  our  own,  a  quantity  of  the  ore  (I 
think  about  thirty  tons)  was  ordered,  which,  however,  cost  about  as  much 
as  pig  iron  was  worth  at  the  time,  being  subject  to  a  long  wagon  trans- 
portation. This  ore  we  worked  in  our  furnace  very  satisfactorily.  In- 
deed our  furnace  never  gave  better  results  than  while  working  this  ore. 
We  commenced  by  charging  one-fourth  Lake  Superior  and  three-fourths 
common  ore.  The  iron  thus  produced  w^as  worked  at  the  Sharon  rolling 
mill  into  boiler  plate,  bar  iron,  nails,  spikes,  etc.,  samples  of  which  were 
shipped  to  New  York  and  there  submitted  to  the  usual  tests,  and  declared 
to  be  of  the  very  best  quality.' 

"So  much  for  my  brother's  statement.  In  regard  to  the  shipment  of 
Lake  Superior  ore  from  Sharpsville  to  the  Clay  furnace,  I  have  to  say  that 
the  second  shipment  of  lake  ore  to  Sharpsville  was  in  mistake.  The  Sharon 
Iron  Co.,  having  purchased  Clay  furnace,  wished  to  work  the  ore  there  and 
directed  it  to  be  left  at  that  furnace  landing  but  the  boatman  by  mistake 
brought  it  on  to  Sharpsville,  from  whence  it  was  reshipped  to  Clay  furnace 
for  the  reason  stated  and  that  only.  Now,  in  view  of  all  these  facts,  am  I 
not  justified  in  claiming  that  D.  and  J.  P.  Agnew  were  not  only  the  first 
to  use,  but  to  use  successfull}',  Lake  Superior  ore  in  the  production  of  pig 
iron  ?" 

]\Ir.  Allen  then  grew  earnest  and  wrote : 

'T  have  very  repeatedly  said  within  the  last  twenty  years  that  Lake 
Superior  ore  was  never  successfully  worked  in  a  blast  furnace  at  Sharps- 
ville, Clay  furnace  or  elsewhere  in  the  Shenango  valley  until  it  w'as  done 
at  Clav  furnace  late  in  the  fall  of  1856.  And  now  I  repeat  it  again  with 
emphasis.  I  know  that  it  was  not  done  at  Clay  furnace,  and  will  briefly 
state  why  I  believe  that  Agnew  brothers  did  not  work  it  successfully  at 
Sharpsville.  On  the  morning  of  Nov.  30,  1853,  the  late  Gen.  J.  B.  Curtis, 
president  of  the  Sharon  Iron  Co.,  did,  at  their  office  in  Sharon,  and  in  the 
presence  of  Air.  D.  Agnew  (then  bookkeeper  for  said  company)  say  to  me, 
'I  have  this  morning  sent  Sam  Clark  to  Sharpsville  with  his  boat  to  get 
a  load  of  that  cursed  ore  and  take  it  to  Clay  furnace  landing,  and  want 
you  to  put  it  through  the  furnace  and  send  the  iron  from  it  here,  that  we 
may  have  it  made  into  iron  and  nails,  before  the  annual  meeting  of  our 
stockholders,'  which  was  soon  to  be  held. 

"I  replied  to  him  that  the  road  from  the  furnace  to  Canal  landing  had 
been  so  badly  cut  up  by  hauling  over  it,  and  now  partly  frozen,  that  it  was 
now  almost  impassable,  and  said  to  him  :  'Whv  not  have  Messrs.  Agnew 


70  THE  HONORABLE  PETER  WHITE 

put  it  through  their  furnace  and  save  hauHng  both  ore  and  iron  over  such 
very  bad  roads/  Here  and  then  Mr.  David  Agnew  turned  from  the  table 
on  which  he  had  been  writing  and  said:  'We  have  tried  more  experiments 
with  that  ore  than  has  been  profitable,  and  will  never  put  another  pound 
of  it  into  our  furnace,'  and  I  verily  believe  that  they  never  did  use  any 
more   of   it. 

"I  then  started  for  home  and  without  stopping  at  the  furnace,  rode 
on  to  the  canal  landing,  engaged  John  Buchanan  to  assist  me  in  placing 
plank  to  unload  on  to,  and  left  him  there  to  help  Mr.  Clark  unload  his  boat 
when  he  should  arrive.  The  same  evening  I  reported  to  Mr.  C.  Davis,  our 
founder,  that  there  would  be  a  load  of  Lake  Superior  ore  at  the  landing 
some  time  during  the  night,  and  also  that  Gen.  Curtis'  instructions  were  to 
put  it  through  the  furnace  without  delay.  Here  I  encountered  a  very 
strong  opposition,  Mr.  Davis  refusing  to  have  it  put  into  the  furnace, 
saying  that  it  had  never  been  and  could  not  be  worked  in  a  blast  furnace 
successfully;  that  he  had  blown  the  Sharon  furnace  for  Mr.  Agnew  a  few 
years  previous ;  had  been  at  Sharpsville  repeatedly  since  the  ore  had  been 
received  there,  and  knew  all  about  the  success  they  had  had  with  the  small 
amount  worked  in  their  furnace,  and  finally  closed  by  saying  that  if  Gen. 
Curtis  wanted  a  boat  load  of  that  ore  put  through  Clay  furnace  he  might 
come  and  direct  the  putting  of  it  in  himself,  and  if  he  stayed  until  it  came 
out  in  the  shape  of  pig  iron  he  would  stav  a  long  time.  I  replied  that  Gen. 
Curtis'  orders  must  be  obeyed,  and  if  the  furnace  chilled  up  or  was  lost 
on  account  of  using  the  ore  we  had  nothing  at  stake  and  would  not  be 
blamed.  He  said :  'You  may  feel  that  you  have  nothing  at  stake  but  I 
have.'  I  asked  what.  He  replied :  'My  reputation  as  a  founder,  and  I 
pride  it  as  highly  as  Gen.  Curtis  does  his  money.'  And  thus  we  parted  for 
the  night. 

"On  the  5th  of  December,  1853,  we  commenced  using  the  ore,  put  in 
a  few  charges  mixed  with  native,  and  then  charged  with  Lake  Superior  ore 
alone.  Were  glad  when  it  was  all  done.  Mr.  Davis  and  I  were  well  sat- 
isfied that  if  there  had  been  much  more  of  it  the  furnace  would  have  been 
in  a  bad  condition.  It  took  several  days  to  get  the  hearth  clear  as  it  was. 
We  sent  seventeen  tons  of  the  iron  to  Sharon.  I  also  attended  a  meetinsr 
of  the  stockholders  above  referred  to,  and  there,  in  tlie  ofiice  of  the  com- 
pany found  a  large  amount  of  iron,  nails  and  spikes  of  a  superior  qual- 
ity, said  to  have  been  made  from  the  Lake  Superior  iron  we  had  sent 
there  a  few  days  previous.  During  the  years  1854-55  we  worked  several 
hundred  tons  of  Lake  Superior  ore  but  not  successfully.     When  charging 


FIRST  USE  OF  THE   ORE   IN   PENNSYLVANIA  AND    OHIO         71 

the  furnaces  with  lake  ore  alone  we  could  run  but  a  few  days,  and  thjen 
resorted  to  mixing;  and  as  regards  the  quality  of  iron  made  it  was  not 
considered  good  for  forge  purposes,  which  I  doubt  not  Mr.  D.  Agnew  rec- 
ollects. T  well  remember  of  once  receiving  an  order  from  the  Sharon  Iron 
Co.  for  a  boat  load  of  our  best  mixture  and  we  shipped  it  by  Capt.  Pat 
Sullivan,  selecting  the  very  best  we  had.  The  next  day  while  eating  dinner 
the  captain  called  at  the  door,  and  for  a  few  minutes  it  was  nothing  but 
'them  d — d  fellows  at  the  mail,  and  Gen.  Curtis  and  Mr.  Agnew  and  that 
d — d  iron.'  He  handed  me  a  letter  from  Mr.  Agnew,  the  contents  of  which 
as  near  as  I  recollect,  was  this  :  'Mr.  Allen— The  iron  you  sent  us  is  not 
suitable  for  our  purpose.  We  sent  it  back.  Either  have  it  unloaded  at  the 
landing  or  send  it  to  Erie  as  you  think  best.'  Having  plenty  of  the  'd — d' 
mixture  on  hand  we  gave  Pat  a  new  shipping  bill  and  he  went  on  his  way 
rejoicing. 

"In  the  fall  of  1856  at  the  request  of  Mr.  Samuel  H.  Kimball,  president 
of  the  Sharon  Iron  Co.,  I  fitted  Clay  furnace  up  with  a  new  lining  based 
upon  my  experiments  of  three  years  back.  We  blew  in  about  the  last  of 
November,  and  immediately  after  the  statement  of  our  first  week's  work 
had  been  received  by  Mr.  Kimball  at  Cleveland,  Mr.  Garrett  and  Dr. 
Hewitt  came  to  Sharon.  Gen.  Curtis  brought  them  to  Clay  furnace  in  his 
carriage  and  the  first  thing  Mr.  Garrett  said  to  me  was,  'Mr.  Kimball 
has  shown  us  your  weekly  statement  about  the  working  of  lake  ore  in  this 
furnace,  and  we  don't  believe  it  is  correct.  We  don't  want  to  be  humbugged 
any  more  about  this  matter  and  will  stay  with  you  until  we  are  satisfied  that 
you  are  not  trying  to  fool  anybody.'  They  did  stay  until  they  were  satisfied 
that  all  was  right. 

"In  a  short  time  manv  of  the  eastern  stockholders  of  the  Sharon  Iron 
Co.  paid  us  a  visit,  the  late  Major  M.  C.  Trout  with  them.  I  cannot  name 
all  of  them  now,  but  among  them  was  Mr.  Oliver  of  Philadelphia,  Shelton 
of  Connecticut,  Greer,  Hix  and  Cook  of  New  York.  They  remained  with 
us  one  day,  and  were  vvdid  with  excitement,  as  well  they  might  be.  The 
great  oroblem  had  been  solved.  Lake  Superior  iron  ore  for  the  first  time 
had  been  successfully  worked  and  the  large  amount  they  had  invested  in 
it  would  not  be  lost.  And  how  was  it  with  us  poor  devils  at  the  furnace 
who  had  been  working  for  three  long  years  to  accomplish  this  great  and 
grand  result?  We  felt  like  new  men.  Instead  of  cursing  Lake  Superior 
ore  and  wishing  it  all  safely  landed  in  hell,  or  some  other  seaport,  the 
more  that  was  sent  us  the  better  we  were  pleased. 

"And  now  a  few  words  in  reply  to  Mr.  Agnew's  article  and   I  have 


12  THE  HONORABLE  PETER  WHITE 

done.  He  said  he  worked  thirty  tons  Lake  Superior,  mixed  with  native  ore, 
and  while  so  doing  changed  the  burden  four  times  and  was  satisfied  with 
the  result.  I  would  like  to  know  wh)-  he  did  not  use  more  of  it — at  least 
the  balance  that  he  had  burnt  and  fitted  ready  to  put  into  the  furnace. 
Was  this  a  mistake  to  have  a  large  amount  burnt  when  there  was  but  a 
few. tons  to  be  used?  If  so,  to  say  the  least  it  was  a  foolish  waste  of  labor 
and  fuel.  And  right  here  I  would  say  to  J.  P.  that  there  are  men  living 
that  worked  at  the  furnace  while  this  puny  test  w^as  being  made  whose 
recollection  of  the  success  attending  it  differs  very  materially  from  his. 

"The  fact  is  that  previous  to  November,  1856,  all  furnacemen  that 
had  tried  Lake  Superior  ore  were  in  the  fix  the  family  were  that  ate  the 
cat.  When  they  had  taken  a  mouthful  apiece  all  round  they  wanted  no 
more.  I  cheerfully  accord  all  credit  to  the  Messrs.  Agnew  for  having 
worked  thirty  of  the  first  429  10-10  tons  of  Lake  Superior  ore  shipped 
into  this  valley,  yet  contend  that  there  was  not  enough  used  (and  it  was 
mixed  with  other  ore)  to  satisfy  any  practical  furnacemen  that  the  test 
thus  made  had  been  thorough  and  successful.  What!  Thirty  tons  if  used 
alone  would  not  fill  a  furnace  half  full,  and  not  more  than  enough  to  last 
one  of  our  furnaces  fifteen  hours  when  in  full  blast.  Is  there  a  man  on 
earth  that  would  invest  his  money  in  building  a  furnace  for  the  purpose 
of  working  ore  that  had  been  thus  tested  and  thus  only?  No.  You  might 
as  well  put  it  through  a  cofi^ee  mill,  then  into  a  pepper  box,  shake  it  over 
the  trunnel  head  once  a  dav  for  a  week,  and  then  come  to  him  and  sav 
that  the  ore  had  been  worked  successfully  in  a  furnace  and  the  iron  made 
from  it  A  No.   i." 

The  extended  remarks  of  Mr.  Allen  caused  Mr.  David  Agnew  to  make 
the  following  reply  : 

"I  presume  Mr.  Allen  will  admit  that  the  first  attempt  to  use  Lake 
Superior  ore  in  a  blast  furnace  was  made  at  the  old  Sharpsville  furnace. 
If  so,  the  only  matter  in  controversy  is :  \\'as  the  result  of  that  trial  suc- 
cessful ?  My  brother,  who  was  in  charge  of  the  business,  was  present  at 
the  time  and  had  therefore  the  best  means  of  knowing  the  facts,  says : 
'This  ore  was  worked  in  our  furnace  very  satisfactorily.  Indeed  our 
furnace  never  gave  better  results  than  while  working  that  ore,'  and  pro- 
ceeds to  state  how  the  ore  was  used,  the  quality  of  the  iron,  etc.  Does  this 
indicate  failure?  But  Mr.  Allen  says  that  in  the  presence  of  himself  and 
Gen.  Curtis  I  acknowledged  the  experiment  to  be  a  failure.  Admitting  that 
such  an  interview  took  place,  of  which  I  have  no  recollection,  still  Mr.  Allen 
must  have  entirel\-  misapprehended  the  language  used  on  that  occasion.     I 


FIRST  USE  OF   THE   ORE   IX   PENNSYLVANIA  AND    OHIO         73 

believed  then  and  have  ever  since  beHeved  that  it  was  a  success.  That  I 
should  have  asserted  the  contrary  is  not  at  all  reasonable.  The  great  cost 
of  the  ore,  as  explained  in  a  former  communication,  was  of  itself  a  sufficient 
reason  for  not  wishing  to  continue  the  experiment  any  longer  than  to 
prove  its  adaptation  to  furnace  use  and  to  judge  of  the  quality  of  the  iron. 
Both  these  objects  were  demonstrated  to  our  entire  satisfaction.  We  could 
not  have  continued  the  experiment  if  we  had  desired  to  do  so,  from  the 
fact  that  the  second  shipment  of  ore  was  intended  to  be  used  at  Clay  fur- 
nace, owned  by  the  ore  company,  and  was  consequently  reshipped  from 
Sharpsvillc  (where  it  was  brought  in  mistake)  to  Clay  furnace  for  that 
purpose.  Mr.  Allen  ridicules  the  idea  that  any  correct  opinion  could  be 
formed  of  the  working,  or  of  the  metallic  qualities  of  the  ore  from  the  small 
quantity  employed.  I  readily  admit  that  such  a  quantity  of  ore  in  one  of  our 
present  furnaces,  yielding  thirty  to  forty  tons  per  day,  would  afford  no 
proper  test  of  its  quality  in  cither  of  these  respects  but  the  trial  under  con- 
sideration was  made  under  entirely  different  circumstances. 

"The  average  product  of  the  Sharpsville  and  other  furnaces  in  this 
valley  at  the  time  of  this  experiment  was  only  about  four  tons  per  day. 
Thirty  tons  of  Lake  Superior  ore  mixed  with  the  common  ores,,  as  ex- 
plained in  my  last,  was  sufficient  to  produce  at  least  thirty  tons  of  metal, 
and  allowing  one  or  even  two  tons  per  day  additional  for  the  increased 
percentage  of  iron  in  the  mixture  would  supply  the  furnace  for  five  or  six 
days.  Will  Mr.  Allen  say  that  such  a  trial  affords  no  ground  on  which 
to  base  a  correct  opinion  of  the  result?  I  have  no  desire,  nor  is  it  nec- 
essary that  I  should  impugn  the  veracity  of  mv  worthy  friend.  He  evi- 
dently got  a  wrong  impression  in  the  beginning,  hence  the  error  into  which 
he  has  fallen.  Having,  as  I  think,  presented  sufficient  evidence  of  the  fact 
that  my  brother  and  myself  were  the  first  to  use,  and  to  use  successfully 
Lake  Superior  ore  in  the  production  of  pig  iron,  I  now  take  leave  of  the 
subject  with  the  kindest  feelings'  for  mv  respected  but  mistaken  competitor 
for  that  honor."  David  Agnew. 

Mr.  Allen  concludes  the  controversy  with  the  following  letter : 
"If  our  respected  friend,  D.  Agnew,  Esq.,  thinks  that  his  last  article 
will  satisfv  any  practical  furnacemcn  that  the  working  of  Lake  Superior 
ore  in  the  old  Sharpsville  furnace  under  his  administration  was  a  success, 
he  is  mistaken.  We,  at  Clay  furnace,  succeeded  much  better  with  the  first 
boat  load,  sent  us  in  December,  1853,  as  we  worked  enough  of  it  alone 
without  mixing  other  ores,  to  produce  fully  seventeen  tons  of  iron,  and 
while  so  doing,  did  not  have  to  cast  over  the  dam.     And  yet  we  know  that 


74 


THE  HONORABLE  PETER  WHITE 


neither  of  the  furnaces  in  the  shape  they  were  then,  could  have  been  run 
on  Lake  Superior  ore  alone  two  days  in  succession  successfully.  To  prove 
this  fact  we  have  only  to  refer  to  Mr.  Agnew's  article.  He  says  it  took 
them  six  days  to  put  thirty  tons  through  the  Sharpsville  furnace,  making 
about  four  tons  of  iron  per  day.    Now  why  was  it  that  this  same  old  Sharps^ 

ville  furnace  in  1859,  under  the  man- 
agement of  John  J.  Spearman,  Esq.,* 
and  being  no  larger  or  better  than 
when  Agnew  owned  her,  was  mak- 
ing from  twenty  to  thirty  tons  of  ex- 
cellent iron  per  day  (as  much  in  a 
day  as  Mr.  Agnew  could  make  in  a 
week).  It  was  simply  this:  Mr. 
Spearman  in  having  her  fitted  made 
the  changes  in  the  shape  of  lining, 
hearth  and  bosh,  that  we  adopted  at 
Clay  furnace  in  1856  when  Lake  Su- 
perior ore  for  the  first  time,  was 
successfully  worked  in  a  blast  fur- 
nace without  mixing. 

"As  stated  in  a  former  article 
we  wish  to  accord  to  Mr.  Agnew  all 
honor  for  having  worked  thirty  tons 
Lake  Superior  ore  mixed  with  native 
ore,  and  that,  too  before  any  Lake 
Superior  ore  had  ever  been  received 
at  Clay  furnace,  even  if  it  did  take 


JOHN    J.    SPEARMAN    AT   22. 


*.ToIin  T.  Spearman  was  born  at  McKee's  Gap,  eight  miles  from  Hollidaysburg,  Bedford 
county,  Pa.,  Dec.  27,  1S24.  His  father  was  a  miller  and  the  Spearman  homestead  later  became 
the  site  of  Dr.  Peter  Schoenberger's  Martha  furnace.  Spearman  began  work  at  the  age  of 
eleven  years  manipulating  leather  blacksmith  bellows  which  forced  air  into  the  shaft  to  the 
working  miners  at  the  Hopewell  ore  mine  at  Bedford  county,  Pa.  From  bellows  boy  he  was 
promoted  to  the  position  of  driver  of  a  horse  and  cart.  He  left  the  furnace  business  at  the 
age  of  fifteen  and  entered  a  general  country  store,  returning  two  years  later  to  Dr.  Schoen- 
berger's employ  at  the  Sarah  furnace.  In  the  spring  of  1842  he  was  employed  in  the  Rebecca 
furnace  in  Huntington  county  as  a  bookkeeper  and  head  clerk,  remaining  until  1845.  He  was 
then  transferred  by  Dr.  Schoenberger  to  the  Maria  forges  as  assistant  manager  of  the  works. 
In  1847  Dr.  Schoenberger  acquired  an  interest  in  the  Sharon  furnace,  Sharon,  Pa.,  and  Spear- 
man, who  was  then  twenty-three  years  of  age,  was  transferred  there  as  assistant  manager.  In 
1852   he   bought   the    Mazeppa   furnace   on    his   own   account. 

He  was  manager  of  the  Sharpsville  furnace  during'  its  early  experience  with  Lake  Superior 
ore.  In  1862  Mr.  Spearman  entered  the  employ  of  James  Wood  &  Sons,  Wheaton,  P'p..,  and  the 
next  year  became  partner,  selling  his  interest  out,  however,  in  the  year  1870.  In  the  fall  of 
1871  he  organized  the  Spearman  Iron  Co.  This  plant  was  sold  to  W.  P.  Snyder  of  Pittsburg 
in  1901.  Mr.  Spearman  is  at  present  president  of  the  First  National  Bank,  of  Sharon,  Pa.,  and 
notwitl.standing    his   great    age   attends    regularly   to    his   duties   at    the    bank   every    day. 


FIRST  USE  OF  THE   ORE   IN   PENNSYLVANIA  AND   OHIO 


75 


six  days.  And  we  now  say  that  if  it  had  taken  six  months  to  get  this  trifling 
amount  through  their  furnace  we  would  still  be  willing  to  give  them  all 
praise  for  having  done  it.  We  spent  three  years  at  Clay  furnace  experiment- 
ing with  lake  ore,  and  notwithstanding  the  fact    that    during    the  whole  of 

that  time  we  succeeded  much  better  than 
Mr.  Agnew  ever  did  at  Sharpsville,  we 
never  worked  it  successfully  until  the 
fall  of  1856." 

The  following  letter  corroborative 
of  Mr.  Allen's  contention  was  received 
from  J.  J.  Spearman,  owner  of  the 
Sharpsville  furnace : 

"The  first  Lake  Superior  ore 
worked  in  the  Shenango  Valley  was  at 
the  old  Sharpsville  furnace,  then  oper- 
ated by  D.  and  J.  P.  Agnew ;  onlv  a 
small  quantity  was  used  in  a  mixture  of 
native  ores.  The  first  Lake  Superior 
ore  worked  alone  was  at  the  Clav  fur- 
nace (now  abandoned).  This  furnace 
was  owned  by  the  Jackson  Iron  Co.,  and 
managed  by  Mr.  Frank  xAllen.  This 
furnace  was  the  first  in  the  Shenango  From  a  photograph  taken  in  igoy. 
Valley,  and  as  far  as  I  know  in  the  Unit- 
ed States  to  use  alone  and  successfully  work  any  large  quantity  of  Lake 
Superior  ore." 

There  is  corroboration  also  of  Mr.  Allen's  contention  in  the  following 
letter  sent  to  W.  J.  Gordon,  president  of  the  Cleveland  Iron  Mining  Co.,  by 
M.  C.  Trout,  a  director  of  the  Sharon  Iron  Works : 

"Oct.  27,  1855. 
"W.  J.  Gordon : 

"The  experiments  with  Lake  Superior  ore  in  blast  furnaces  have  not  been 
made  under  circumstances  to  enable  me  to  state  the  best  method  of  using  it. 
The  improvements  now  being  made  at  Clay  furnace  will  enable  us  to  test 
that  metal  this  fall  or  winter.    The  usual  method  of  lining  a  boiling  furnace 


T.      J.      SPEARMAN. 


76 


THE  HONORABLE  PETER  WHITE 


is  to  build  around  the  sides  of  the  furnace  while  cold  with  small  lumps  of 
ore  and  then  when  the  furnace  is  heated  melt  sufficient  ore  to  fill  up  the 
crevices  by  dashing  the  melted  ore  against  the  sides  with  a  furnace  bar.  The 
bottom  of  the  furnace  is  generally  made  by  luelting  scraps  and  spreading  on 

the  bottom   some   two    or    three   inches 

thick. 

"Yours  truly, 

"M.  C.  Trout." 

It  is  quite  well  authenticated  that 
the  first  person  to  manufacture  iron 
from  Lake  Superior  ore  in  Ohio  was 
Charles  Howard,  proprietor  of  the 
Falcon  Iron  Works  at  Youngstown. 
Howard's  first  order  was  for  500 
tons  at  $8  per  ton  and  was  placed 
with  The  Cleveland  Iron  Mining  Co., 
in  August.  1856.  It  was  shipped  to  him 
via  the  canal.*  Howard  had  estab- 
lished the  Falcon  furnace  a  few  years 
previously.  Describing  his  experience 
in  later  years  in  a  letter  to  Mr.  J.   H. 

Sheadle,  secretary  of  the  Cleveland  Cliflfs 

Iron  Co.,  he  said : 


M.     S.     MARQUIS     IN     1850. 


*The  letter  appended  herewith  from  Capt.  M.  S.  Marquis,  of  New  Castle,  Pa.,  illustrates 
quite  picturesquely  the  conditions  surrounding  the  transportation  of  early  shipinents  of  ore  by 
canal.  Capt.  Marquis  and  Capt.  John  Reeves  of  Beaver  Falls  are  the  two  oldest  surviving  canal 
boat  captains.  Capt.  Marquis  is  now  a  banker,  being  president  of  the  Home  Trust  Co.,  and 
has  not  for  many  years  been  connected  with  canal  work.  Concerning  his  early  experience  he 
writes: 

"The  Alpha  was  the  first  boat  to  run  from  New  Castle  to  Pittsburg.  When  she  was  built 
I  was  four  years  old.  I  drove  on  the  canal  in  1845.  In  1846  I  run  my  first  boat,  which  was 
called  the  Farmer.  In  1848  I  ran  the  Ashland  Farmer,  belonging  to  Capt.  John  Reeves,  and 
carried  75  passengers  out  of  Cleveland.  In  1849  I  run  the  Aliquippa  for  four  months,  then 
I  bought  the  J.  11.  Whistler  from  Capt.  Green.  I  then  built  several  boats,  the  names  of 
which  as  near  as  I  can  remember  were  as  follows:  Arabella,  Youngstown,  F.  K.  Beshore.  I 
also  built  the  following  steamboats:  Seagull,  ]\Ionitor,  Ilemrod  and  Sligo.  Then  I  built  two 
horse  boats,  named  the  O.  H.  P.  Green  and  'SI.  S.  ^Marquis.  Other  boats  which  I  bought  and 
owned    for    some    time    I    cannot    remember    the    names    of,    but    I    had    at    one    time    fourteen    boats. 

"I  think  in  1848  I  freighted  gray  ore  from  Cleveland  to  Pittsburg,  for  a  firm  named  For- 
sythe,  at  $3  per  ton.  I  also  carried  copper  ore;  it  was  in  large  pieces,  weighing  one,  three,  four 
and  five  tons  each.  It  was  melted  by  C.  C.  Hussey  &  Co.  in  Pittsburg.  I  think  the  gray 
ore  was  used  as  "fix"  in  puddling  furnaces.  There  was  not  much  ore  used  before  the  railroad 
v/as  built.  I  think  there  was  a  little  furnace  at  Niles,  O.,  of  about  two  tons  per  day  capacity; 
one  at  Brier  Hill,  capacity  about  ten  or  fifteen  tons  per  day;  and  one  at  Lowellville  about  the 
same  capacity.  Rhodes  &  Co.,  Bingham  S:  Co.,  L.  O.  ]\Iatthews,  and  Chamberlain  were  the 
shippers. 


FIRST  USE  OF  THE   ORE   IX   PENNSYLVANIA   AND   OHIO         11 


"In  1847  or  1848  a  company  of  ^^^elshmen  built  a  furnace  in  Summit 
county,  Ohio,  not  far  from  a  place  known  as  the  Old  Forge,  near  Akron, 

Ohio,  and  expected  to  get  the  coal  from 
a  mine  that  was  being  worked  a  little 
near  Tallmadge.  five  miles  from  Akron. 
They  put  up  a  good  stack  and  good 
machinery,  but  after  several  trials 
found  out  that  the  Tallmadge  coal 
would  not  do  for  smelting,  so  they 
quit,  gave  up  the  whole  thing  as  a 
failure,  leaving  machinery  and  every- 
thing standing  there.  I  bought  the 
whole  thing  for  a  small  sum,  took  it 
down  and  moved  it  to  Youngstown. 
built  the  Falcon  furnace  and  used  the 
Welshman's  machinery  and  everything 
else  I  could  use.  I  had  saved  up  $700 
of  my  salary,  and  I  thought  I  was 
rich  enough  to  be  an  iron  master  on 
my  own  account.  I  found  out  later 
that  $700  was  not  anything  like  enough 
money  to  build  and  run  a  blast  fur- 
nace ;  so  after  running  one  year  I  sold  out  to  James  Wood  &  Co.  of  Niles, 
Ohio,  went  to  Massillon,  Ohio,  and  built  the  first  Massillon  furnace  for 
Marshall  Wellman^  who  was  president  of  the  Massillon  bank.  Later  I  re- 
turned to  Youngstown  and  bought  back  the  Falcon.  I  rebuilt  the  stack 
and  made  improvements  of  different  kinds  but  the  iron  made  from  the  lean 
ores  from  about  Youngstown  was  not  just  what  was  altogether  suitable 
for  the  Pittsburg  rolling  mills  in  making  iron  and  nails.  That  being  the 
principal  market  ore  that  would  mix  with  the  native  ore  and  improve  the 
quality  of  the  pig  iron  was  much  desired  and  sought  after.  So  in  1856 
when  I  saw  a  notice  in  the  Cleveland  Herald  that  the  Cleveland  Iron  Min- 
ing Co.  had  received  a  cargo  of  Lake  Superior  ore  and  was  prepared  to 


JOHN     T.     EEEVES. 


"M.     S.     MARQUIS. 


"I  think  I  must  have  owned  in  all  about  twenty  or  twenty-five  boats.  I  would  be  four 
days  and  nights  going  from  Cleveland  to  Pittsburg.  It  was  slow  traveling,  but  there  was 
plenty  of  fish  and  game.  The  passengers  would  hunt  and  fish,  as  they  could  walk  four  miles 
per  hour,  and  my  boat  traveled  only  two.  This  gave  the  men  a  good  time  to  hunt,  and  the 
ladies  would  walk  ahead  and  fish.  I  sometimes  had  in  all  seventy-five  passengers,  some  of 
whom    were    emigrants." 


78 


THE  HONORABLE  PETER  WHITE 


supply  blast  furnaces  and  rolling  mills  on  reasonable  terms  I  made  a  trip 
to  Cleveland  in  order  to  see  the  ore  and  get  some  idea  of  what  it  would 
yield  and  what  it  would  cost  delivered  in  Youngstown.     I  met  with  the 

president  and  with  Mr.  Tuttle.  who  was 
secretary,  and  found  them  to  be  anxious 
to  have  the  furnaces  commence  the  use 
of  their  ore.  They  said  they  were  pre- 
pared to  furnish  a  steady  supply,  so  I 
made  arrangements  with  them  to  send 
me  a  few  carloads  at  once.  Let  me  say 
that  the  idea  prevailed  at  that  time 
among  the  furnacemen  that  Lake  Su- 
perior ore  could  not  be  smelted  with  raw 
coal ;  that  the  ore  would  have  to  be 
roasted  first  and  the  coal  made  into  coke 
before  using.  But  there  was  nothing  of 
this  necessary.  It  worked  nicely  from 
the  start,  improving  the  quality  of  iron 
by  giving  it  body  and  very  much  in- 
creasing the  output  of  the  furnace  p2r 
day  and  making  the  cost  per  ton  for 
labor  less,  and  the  iron  more  salable  as 

CHARLES   T.    HOWARD.  WCll." 


CHAPTER  IX. 

PETER  WHITE  AND  HIS  DOG  SLEDS. 

HTHE  work  of  converting  the  plank  road  into  a  strap  railroad  and  the  grow- 
ing fame  of  the  iron  hills  had  caused  quite  an  influx  of  people  so  that 
Marquette  was  beginning  to  have  quite  a  respectable  number  of  inhabitants. 
These  recruits  saw  the  last  boat  depart  and  the  winter  close  in  upon  them 
with  feelings  of  uneasiness,  which  gradually  gave  way  to  uncontrollable 
impatience  when  they  realized  that  they  were  not  going  to  get  any  mail 
during  the  entire  winter.  It  was  the  old  story  over  again.  In  fact  the 
last  mail  was  delivered  on  Oct.  17.  On  Jan.  8,  1854,  the  people  could 
stand  it  no  longer  and  sent  for  Peter  White  to  attend  a  mass  meeting 
which  they  had  called.  Intense  and  fervent  speeches  were  made,  but 
all  had  the  same  ending — that  Peter  White  should  go  for  the  mail.  No 
one  else  was  thought  of.  He  was  regarded  as  some  mysterious  genie  who 
with  a  dog  and  sled  could  penetrate  the  trackless  wilds  and  bring  the  pre- 
cious mail  out  of  its  hiding  place.  So  with  six  Indians  and  three  dog  teams 
of  three  dogs  each,  Peter  White  again  went  after  the  mail.  Peter  atid  the 
Indians  took  away  nearly  1,000  letters  to  be  posted.  They  plunged  into 
the  woods  at  the  mouth  of  Carp  river,  but  found  snow-shoeing  tedious 
work,  as  the  snow  was  very  soft.  On  the  seventh  day,  while  making  slow 
work  of  it  in  the  deep,  wet  snow  which  covered  the  ice  of  Cedar  river, 
near  the  waters  of  Green  Bay,  they  espied  in  the  dim  distance  what  appeared 
to  them  at  first  like  five  immense  loads  of  hay  slowly  crawling  toward  them. 
A  little  later  the  strange  spectacle  came  more  definitely  into  view  and  was 
seen  to  be  five  double  teams  with  five  sleigh  loads  of  United  States  mail, 
bound  for  Lake  Superior  places,  via  Escanaba  and  Marquette,  in  charge  of 
Daniel  M.  Whitney,  ol  Green  Bay.  This  mail  weighed  between  seven  and 
eight  tons.  It  may  be  imagined  that  the  meeting  of  these  two  caravans  was 
most  joyful. 

Mr.  Whitney  said  that  the  postoffice  at  Green  Bay  was  filled  to  over- 
flowing with  mail  and  that  the  postmaster  at  that  place  had  taken  the 
most  doubtful  responsibility  of  employing  him  to  make  one  trip.     Whitney 


80  THE  HONORABLE  PETER  WHITE 

had  engaged  ten  men,  Indians  and  French,  to  help  him.  Peter  White  took 
charge  of  the  party,  and  loading  up  his  dog  sleds  with  the  contents  of 
one  of  the  sleighs  he  sent  the  entire  party,  dogs,  sleds,  French  and  Indians 
on  to  Escanaba  and  Marquette  while  he  and  Mr.  Whitney  drove  in  the  sleigh 
which  had  just  been  unloaded  to  Green  Bay. 

It  mieht  be  well  to  follow  the  mail  before  following  the  immediate 
adventures  of  Peter  White.  After  great  tribulations,  delays  and  troubles, 
the  mail  reached  Marc|uette  on  Jan.  21,  which  was  really  very  good  time 
considering  the  fearful  conditions  of  the  roads,  which  were  made  almost 
impassable  by  melting  snows.  The  dog  teams  were  dispatched  ahead  of 
the  others  with  the  letter  bags.  Nearly  half  the  population  of  Marquette 
went  down  as  far  as  the  Carp  river  to  meet  the  mail  and  to  help  carry  it  into 
town.  As  the  savages  of  some  of  the  southern  climes  are  wont  to  gorge 
themselves  with  food  to  unspeakable  excess  and  then  sleep  for  days  there- 
after, so  did  the  people  of  the  little  village  give  themselves  up  to  a  riot  of 
reading.  No  work  was  done  for  two  days.  The  paper  mail  came  a  week 
later  but  it  was  so  worn  and  wet  that  most  of  the  addresses  were  unde- 
cipherable. However,  that  was  no  matter,  as  perfect  communion  prevailed 
in  the  ownership  of  newspapers  in  those  days. 

Meanwhile  the  subject  of  our  story  was  holding  a  heated  argument 
with  the  postal  authorities  and  with  Gen.  Lewis  Cass,  who  was  Michigan's 
representative  in  the  United  States  Senate.  On  his  arrival  at  Green 
Bay,  he  found  that  Mr.  Hicks,  the  postmaster,  had  on  hand  twenty-four 
bags  of  mail  matter  for  Lake  Superior.  Eacli  bag  held  four  bushels.  He 
found,  moreover,  that  the  mail  was  accumulating  at  the  rate  of  six  bushels 
a  day,  and  the  Green  Bay  postmaster  was  in  a  quandary  as  to  what  to  do 
with  it.  He  had  employed  Mr.  Whitney  to  make  one  trip  to  Marquette 
at  enormous  cost  on  doubtful  authority. 

"Something's  got  to  be  done/'  said  Peter,  who  had  before  him  at 
all  times  the  frenzied  population  of  Marquette,  and  who  did  not  want  to 
return  without  the  message  that  he  had  arranged  a  definite  schedule  for 
the  mail. 

The  nearest  telegraph  point  was  Fond  du  Lac  and  thither  he  journeyed 
to  wire  Senator  Cass.  The  extraordinary  number  of  words  which  the 
young  man  used  (for  telegraph  tolls  were  very  high  then),  the  vigor  of 
language,  the  fact  that  he  transmitted  the  major  part  of  the  resolutions 
adopted  by  the  citizens  of  Marcjuette  setting  forth  the  immense  value  of  the 
iron  and  copper  mines  and  denounced  in  unmeasured  terms  the  apathy 
of  Gen.  Hester  L.  Stevens,  their  representative  in  congress,  to  the  need? 


PETER   WHITE  AND    HIS    DOG    SLEDS  81 

of  the  community,  together  with  the  withering  scorn  and  invective  directed 
against  the  postoffice  department,  convinced  Gen.  Cass  that  an  insurrection 
was  imminent  in  the  peninsula,  and  he  hastened  at  once  to  the  postmaster 
general  with  the  dispatch  from  his  impetuous  young  constituent.  But 
even  this  was  not  enough  for  Peter.  He  bombarded  Cass  for  two  days 
with  telegrams  so  impudent  that  he  would  not  dare  today  to  send  them  to 
anyone.  Gen.  Cass  replied  that  he  appreciated  the  importance  of  his  mission 
and  told  him  that  he  had  written  him  at  Green  Bay  and  to  await  the  receipt 
of  the  letter.  In  three  days  the  letter  came  inclosing  several  from  the  first 
and  second  assistant  postmasters  general,  informing  him  that  the  Hon. 
Henry  Hart,  a  special  agent  of  the  postoffice  department  at  Adrian,  Mich., 
had  been  wired  to  meet  him  at  Green  Bay.  The  telegraph  operator  sought 
to  beguile  away  the  interval  of  time  by  presenting  Peter  with  a  bill  for  $66. 
Peter  was  ever  a  thrifty  lad  and  the  size  of  this  bill  was  to  him  appalling. 
He  supposed  that  he  had  contracted  an  expenditure  of  about  six  dollars. 
He  found  some,  though  not  a  total  consolation,  in  the  fact  that  it  would 
not  have  to  come  out  of  his  own  pocket. 

In  his  frequent  visits  to  the  postoffice  at  Green  Bay  Peter  had  noticed 
that  the  postmaster  had  accumulated  a  lot  of  empty  canvas  mail  bags, 
perhaps  200  in  number,  and  they  were  folded  double  and  piled  up  like 
stove  wood  in  neat  piles  in  the  woodshed  attached  to  the  postoffice.  The 
postmaster  consented  that  Peter  should  try  any  desired  experiment  with 
them  provided  he  did  not  injure  them.  So  Peter  diligently  employed  the 
days  while  awaiting  the  arrival  of  Special  Agent  Hart  in  making  packages 
of  these  bags  by  stuffing  them  into  other  bags  leaving  a  vacuum  of  about 
18  in.  in  the  top  of  each  package  of  bags  into  which  he  closely  packed  mail 
matter  addressed  to  Lake  Superior  points.  He  then  carefully  closed  them 
with  the  puckering  strings,  leaving  an  opening  on  top  of  each  bag  of  5  or 
6  in.  wdth  the  addressed  side  of  each  paper  upward,  so  that  the  merest  look 
would  convince  anyone  that  that  was  a  bag  of  mail  for  Lake  Superior. 
Then  these  deceptive  bags  were  stacked,  end  on  end,  in  tiers  three  stories 
high  nearly  reaching  the  ceiling  in  the  back  room  of  the  postoffice  and 
woodshed.  Thus  the  thirty  odd  bags  of  mail  had  grown  into  120  large 
bags  of  mail.  When  the  special  agent  arrived  in  the  course  of  four  or  five 
days,  he  surveyed  the  accumulation  of  mail  with  wonder  and  saw  that  an 
emergency  existed.  He  surveyed  the  accumulation  however,  upon  a  full 
stomach,  for  Peter  w^as  careful  to  meet  him  at  the  stage  and  to  escort  him 
to  the  Astor  House,  where  a  supper  of  oysters  and  champagne  was  given 
to  him  before  proceeding  to  business.     Peter  was  very  polite  indeed  to  Mr. 


82  THE  HONORABLE  PETER  WHITE 

Hart.  The  special  agent  at  once  approved  the  temporary  contract  that 
had  been  made  with  Mr.  Whitney  for  the  one  trip  and  authorized  a  new 
contract  for  one  trip  a  week  from  Green  Bay  to  Lake  Superior.  Peter  con- 
tinued to  entertain  him  for  two  or  three  days  thereafter  with  such  princely 
liberality  that  Mr.  Hart  made  an  order  increasing  the  service  to  three  times 
a  week  before  he  left.  The  peninsula  never  thereafter  lacked  for  mail 
facilities  and  Peter  White's  return  to  Marquette  was  one  of  triumph. 


CHAPTER  X. 


BUILDING  THE  OLD  STRAP  RAILROAD. 

]Y/TExA.N WHILE  Peter  White  was  doing  a  lot  of  thinking.     He  saw  the 

gradual  unfolding  of  the  industrial  panorama  and  he  began  to  perceive 

opportunities   for  making  money  on  his  own  account.     He  was   shut  out 

from  making  iron  ore  investments,   for  that  required  capital  and  he  had 

only  his  savings.  He  possessed,  how- 
ever, the  natural  instinct  of  a  mer- 
chant. He  was  essentially  by  dis- 
position a  buyer  and  seller,  and  re- 
signing his  position  with  the  Cleve- 
land company  he  opened  a  store  of 
his  own.  He  conducted  it  with  pro- 
fit but  sold  out  when  he  saw  a  better 
opening  in  the  insurance  business. 
Pie  has  always  had  the  eyes  of  a 
hawk  for  opportunity.  Then  he  be- 
gan the  business  of  banking  in  a 
small  way.  When  W.  J.  Gordon,  af- 
terward a  well  known  capitalist  and 
])hilanthropist  of  Cleveland,  visited 
the  iron  region  for  the  first  time  in 
18.^4,  having  joined  the  Cleveland 
company,  he  was  attracted  to  Peter 
White  instantly — and  W.  J.  Gordon 
could  see  through  a  cast  iron  vault. 
To  take  a  man's  measure  at  once 
was  an  instinct  with  him.  He  was 
a  truly  great  man,  many-sided,  bold 
and  complete.  He  grasped  the  na- 
ture of  the  iron  ore  deposits,  their  marvelous  extent  and  future  influence 


W.    J.    GORDON. 


84 


THE  HONORABLE  PETER  WHITE 


almost  before  any  man  did.*  He  saw,  too,  that  Peter  White  was  as  sensible 
a  young  man  as  lived  in  that  region  and  he  came  to. rely  upon  his  judgment. 
He  never  submitted  a  proposition  to  his  directors  when  he  was  in  the  penin- 
sula that  he  did  not  first  submit  to  Peter. 

But  what  days  of  stress  and  turmoil  they  were.  The  Cleveland  com- 
pany permanently  abandoned  the  making  of  blooms  when  the  forge  burned 
down  in  December,  1853,  and  devoted  itself  to  the  mining  and  shipping  of 
ore.  There  were  approximately  1,000  tons  of  ore  on  dock  when  the  season 
of  navigation  opened  in  1854.  The  winter  had  been  a  bad  one  for  hauling 
the  ore  in  sleighs.  The  average  load  was  a  gross  ton  and  only  about  fifteen 
tons  could  be  brought  down  per  day.  The  tariff  for  the  haul  from  the 
mine  to  the  lake  was  $3  per  ton  and  the  price  of  the  ore  on  dock  at  Mar- 


THE   SIDE   WHEEL   STEAMER   ILLINOIS. 


quette  was  $8  per  ton.  The  cost  of  mining  was  50  cents  per  ton — a  mag- 
nificent profit,  indeed,  if  any  volume  of  business  could  be  transacted.  Nearly 
the  whole  of  the    1,000  tons  of  ore  on   doc'k  when  navigation  opened   in 

*Mr.  Gordon  thus  described  his  impressions  of  the  iron  mines  in  a  letter  to  the  Cleveland 
Company    written    after    his    first    visit    to    the    mines: 

"Aug.     22nd,     1854. 

"I  visited  the  iron  mountain  week  before  last  and  have  examined  our  property  generally 
and  am  entirely  satisfied  with  my  investment.  It  does  not  vary  much  from  my  expectations,  as 
my  sources  of  information  before  coming  here  were  reliable  and  intelligent.  Yet  the  mind  can 
scarcely  realize  the  wonderful  deposits  of  iron  in  our  hills  without  the  aid  of  actual  personal 
observation,    it   being   almost    incredible." 


BUILDING   THE   OLD  STRAP    RAILROAD  85 

1854  was  taken  by  the  Forest  City  Iron  Co.  It  was  wheeled  aboard  the 
propellers  Sam  Ward,  Napoleon  and  Peninsula  in  barrows  and  dumped 
upon  the  deck.  x'Vt  the  Sault  it  had  to  be  unloaded  and  carried  over  the 
portage,  where  it  was  again  wheeled  upon  vessels  and  taken  to  the  lower 
lake  ports. 

In  the  business  of  portage,  Sheldon  McKnight  and  his  old  gray  horse 
and  French  cart  occupy  a  picturesque  and  commanding  position  in  the 
history  of  the  Sault.  This  faithful  animal  had  the  distinguished  honor  in 
1845  of  hauling  every  pound  of  freight  that  passed  to  and  from  Lake 
Superior,  a  point  of  special  significance  when  it  is  borne  in  mind  that  today 
the  commerce  which  passes  this  point  is  far  greater  than  that  which  is 
exchanged  between  New  York  and  Liverpool ;  when  the  transfer  of  com- 
modities to  and  from  this  great  father  of  waters,  which  was  well  within 
the  capacity  of  this  old  gray  horse  to  handle,  has  grown  within  the  life- 
time of  the  hero  of  this  sketch  to  dimensions  more  than  three  times  as  ereat 
as  the  commerce  which  annually  passes  through  the  Suez  canal.  The  dis- 
covery of  the  mineral  deposits,  however,  brought  such  a  flood  of  prospectors 
and  miners  that  McKnight  and  his  old  horse  had  more  than  they  could  do 
to  handle  the  material.  So  McKnight  with  J.  T.  Whiting,  built  a  strap 
railway  about  a  mile  long  across  the  portage  in  1850.  He  placed  a  number 
of  cars  upon  it  and  drew  them  with  horses  and  this  was  the  first  railway  of 
any  kind  to  be  built  in  the  upper  peninsula  of  Michigan.  What  with  the 
transit  of  iron  and  copper  down,  with  machinery  and  provisions  of  all 
kinds  up,  McKnight  did  a  flourishing  business  and  the  Sault  became  a  dis- 
tributing center.  The  thought  of  a  canal  at  the  Sault  was  gall  and  wormwood 
to  McKnight.  He  fought  the  project  bitterly,  opposing  it  at  every  step,  de- 
claring that  it  was  unnecessary  and  that  it  would  kill  the  Sault.  This  last 
argument  found  a  responsive  chord  in  many  a  breast,  for  a  number  of  men 
gained  their  livelihood  in  the  rehandling  of  freight  at  that  point.  The  project 
of  the  canal  was  not  advanced  by  any  of  the  Saulteurs. 

The  strap  railroad  from  Marcpiette  to  the  mines  was  not 
ready  for  use  during  the  winter  of  1854  and  the  ore  was  car- 
ried down  in  sleighs  as  usual.  The  projectors  called  it  the  Iron 
Mountain  Railway  Co.  Fleman  P.  Ely  was  busily  engaged  also 
in  the  construction  of  his  railroad,  which  he  called  the  Iron 
Mountain  Railroad  Co. — a  distinction  in  tern:s  sufficient  to  confuse 
anyone  who  endeavors  to  trace  the  history  of  the  peninsula  from 
the  very  manuscript  of  those  who  made  it.  However,  they  were  distinct 
corporations,  as  was  quite  apparent  at  the  time,  for  Ely  served  an  endless 
number  of  injunctions  upon  the  contractors  and  workmen  who  were  engaged 


86 


THE  HONORABLE  PETER  WHITE 


upon  the  Iron  Mountain  Railway.  There  were  innumerable  disputes  regard- 
ing the  rights  of  way  and  things  finally  got  to  such  a  pitch  that  Charles  T. 
Harvey  finally  suggested  to  the  contending  interests  that  they  permit  him 
to  act  as  arbitrator.  Both  sides  recognized  his  eminent  capacity  for  work 
of  this  kind  and  agreed  to  abide  by  his  decision.  Harvey  thereupon  caused 
maps  to  be  drawn  defining  where  each  roadbed  should  be  laid  and  determin- 
ing how  nearly  they  should  approach  each  other  at  important  points.  He  did 
his  work  well  and  his  voluntary  services  were  appreciated  by  both  sides. 
Nerves  were  at  the  highest  tension,  for  work  upon  the  canal  at  Sault 
Ste.  Marie  was  progressing  rapidly,  and  everyone  wanted  the  line  of  com- 
munication to  the  mines  to  be  finished  first  in  order  to  care  for  the  heavy 
shipments  that  were  bound  to  follow. 

But.  alas,  notwithstanding  the  heroic 
efforts  put  forth,  the  canal  was  opened 
before  the  strap  railroad  was  finished.  It 
was  an  era  of  the  wildest  excitement  in 
the  peninsula.  Cholera  had  broken  out 
once  and  hundreds  had  died  in  building 
the  canal,  but  now  the  great  work  was 
done,  ^^'ater  was  let  into  the  canal  on 
April  19,  1853,  and  on  June  18,  it  was 
opened  to  commerce  with  John  Burt  as 
its  first  superintendent.  The  steam- 
er Illinois  was  the  first  vessel  to 
pass  up  and  the  Baltimore  the  first 
to  pass  down  on  the  day  of  the 
opening.  On  the  following  day  the 
propeller  Gen.  Taylor  passed  through 
up  bound  and  on  the  20th  the 
passenger  steamer  North  Star  en- 
tered up  bound.  The  North  Star  was  the  first  vessel  to  reach  Marquette 
through  the  canal,  having  made  the  trip  from  the  Sault  in  a  little  less  than 
eight  hours.  The  schooner  Freeman,  Capt.  J.  H.  .Andrews,  master,  passed  up 
July  3  and  was  the  first  sailing  vessel  to  make  the  complete  trip  from  the 
lower  lakes  into  Lake  Superior. 

When  the  trim  hull  of  the  North  Star  shot  into  Iron  Bay  the  people 
of  Marquette  nearly  went  wild.     She  signified  so  much  to  them.     She  had 


CAPT.  J.   H.  ANDKKWS 


BUILDING   THE   OLD  STRAP    RAILROAD  87 

come  as  a  deliverer.  She  had  burst  the  bars  that  had  so  long-  caged  the 
peninsula  and  was  the  first  to  bring  the  message  of  emancipation.  Her 
name,  too,  North  Star,  was  so  appropriate  for  this  great  northern  sea. 
The  people  on  seeing  her  gave  vent  to  a  mighty  outburst  of  patriotism.  Dr. 
Morgan  L.  Hewitt  was  deeply  stirred,  as  a  letter  written  by  him  upon  the 
occasion  shovv'S.  He  ran  up  the  American  flag  upon  the  city  flag-staff  and 
every  man  who  had  a  gun  fired  it  off. 

Heman  E.  Ely  suggested  that  appropriate  exercises  be  held  on  the 
Fourth  of  July  to  celebrate  the  opening  of  the  canal  which  meant  so  much 
to  the  iron  country.  Mr.  Ely,  who  was  a  patriotic  and  generous  man,  bore 
the  expense  of  the  entire  celebration,  providing  music  and  fireworks  and  re- 
'freshments  for  the  entire  village.  Speeches  were  made  by  Dr.  J-  J-  St.  Clair, 
agent  for  the  Cleveland  Iron  Mining  Co. ;  Mr.  George  King,  of  the  Jackson 
Iron  Co.,  and  Mr.  Ely,  who  was  the  principal  orator  of  the  day.  Peter  White 
followed  the  speakers  by  merely  reading  the  Declaration  of  Independence. 
Ely's  address  was  praised  by  everyone  except  William  O'Brien,  an  Irishman, 
who  had  helped  himself  quite  liberally  to  punch.  He  was  heard  describing 
the  occasion  in  the  following  language: 

"There  was  Docther  Sinclair;  he  was  the  prisident  of  the  day  and  made 
a  tolerably  dacent  spaach,  good  anuff  for  any  other  day  but  Ford-a-Julv ! 
Thin  there  was  Misther  King,  the  Jackson  Company  dark ;  he  made  a  little 
talk,  good  anuff  for  the  childers,  but  no  account  for  a  Ford-a-July  spaach. 
And  then  Mr.  Ealy  he  got  up ;  he  talked  about  rivers  and  harbors  and  rail- 
roads an  tiligrafs,  shtame  boats,  canals  and  sich  like.  Oh,  begobs !  it  was 
tadious  but  I  would  have  called  it  a  fine  spaach  for  any  other  day  but  a 
Ford-a-July,  but  for  that  day  it  was  no  spaach  at  all.  But  I  will  tell  yez 
w'ho  did  make  a  good  spaach — it  was  ]Mr.  Pate  White.  He  got  up  and  he 
talked  like  a  book.  He  talked  about  liberty  and  aquality  and  the  rights  of 
the  min  and  he  w^as  down  on  King  George  and  the  parleymint  and  sor,  he 
made  the  bist  Ford-a-July  spaach  of  them  all." 


The  Honorable  Peter  White 


PART      II 


Sault    Ste.    Marie    Before    the    Canal 

Lake    Superior   Shipping    Before   the    Canal 

Construction    of  the    Canal 


CHAPTER  XI. 

SAULT  STE.   MARIE  BEFORE  THE  CANAL. 

CINCE  no  single  act  of  man  has  conferred  so  wide  a  blessing,  industrially 
considered,  on  the  American  people  as  the  construction  of  the  first  canal  at 
Sault  Ste.  Marie,  it  might  be  well  to  set  down  in  detail  the  history  of  the 
site  of  this  splendid  achievement.  As  the  story  unfolds  it  will  be  shown  in 
what  manner  the  locks  of  Sault  Ste.  Marie  have  altered  the  face  of  the 
country;  but  for  the  present  let  us  deal  with  Sault  Ste.  Marie  itself.  There 
are  two  pictures — Sault  Ste.  Marie  before  and  after  the  canal  and  each 
differs  widely  in  aspect.  To  us  Sault  Ste.  Marie  is  one  of  the  most  romantic 
places  in  the  world. 

There  has  always  been  an  Indian  settlement  at  the  Sault.  When 
Nicollet  went  to  Sault  Ste.  Alarie  in  1634  he  foimd  a  permanent  Indian 
town  there.  Elsewhere  the  Indians  are  nomadic ;  wdien  they  have  hunted  a 
region  out  they  take  down  their  tepees  and  migrate,  but  at  Sault  Ste.  Marie 
they  remained  and  lived  in  peace.  The  reason  was  that  the  rapids  were 
always  open  and  accordingly  they  could  fish  all  the  year  around.  Fish 
constituted  their  principal  food  during  the  winter  season.     In  1641  Charles 

Raymbault  and  Isaac  Jogues  held  a  brief  mission  at  the  rapids  and  called 
it  Saint  Mary.  In  1661  Radisson  and  Grosseilliers  camped  there  for  a  little 
while  ;  but  the  permanent  settlement  is  to  be  dated  from  the  establishment  of 
the  mission  by  Father  James  Marquette  in  1668.* 

*  Father  James  jSIarqiiette  was  born  in  Laon,  Picardy,  France,  in  1637.  He  began  his 
scholastic  career  at  an  early  age,  nltimately  ioining  the  Jesuit  order  and  being  ordained  a  priest. 
In  1666  he  voluntarily  gave  up  the  tranquillity  of  the  cloister  for  the  arduous  work  of  the 
missionary,  and  joined  the  ranks  of  the  pioneers  of  New  France,  arriving  in  Quebec,  Sept.  20, 
1666.  In  April,  1668,  he  was  dispatched  in  company  with  a  brother  of  the  order  to  assist  in 
the  Northwest.  He  established  a  new  mission  station  at  Sault  Ste.  Marie,  near  the  foot  of  the 
rapids,  and  in  1669  set  out  to  take  charge  of  the  La  Pointe  mission,  near  the  present  site  of 
Ashland,  reaching  it  after  a  perilous  iourney  in  September.  It  was  here  he  conceived  the  daring 
idea  of  attempting  the  discovery  of  a  great  river  in  the  West,  of  the  existence  of  which  he  had 
learned  from  the  Indians.  His  plan  was  to  go  there  in  the  fall  of  1670,  but  was  frustrated 
by  a  war  which  broke  out  between  the  Hurons  and  Ottawas  on  one  side  and  the  Dakotas  on 
the  other.  The  Ottawas  finally  fled,  leaving  Marquette  with  the  Hurons.  The  Hurons  resolved 
to  leave  La  Pointe  for  the  rich  fisheries  of  Mackinac,  and  there,  in  1671,  Father  Marquette  began 
the  mission  of  St.  Jgnace.  To  Marquette's  great  joy  he  was  then  appointed  by  the  Jesuit 
superior   to  accompany   Joliet,    the   royal   hydrographer    of   New    France,   on   a   tour   to   extend    French 


92  THE  HONORABLE  PETER  WHITE 

Sault  Ste.  Marie  is  the  oldest  town  in  Michigan,  antedating  Detroit 
by  more  than  thirty  years.  In  1750  the  French  estabhshed  a  military  post 
at  Sault  Ste.  Marie  for  the  purpose  of  preventing  the  English,  as  far  as 
possible,  from  obtaining  a  foothold  on  Lake  Superior.  When  Alexander 
Henry  visited  Sault  Ste.  Marie  in  1762  he  found  it  to  consist  of  a  fort  and 
four  houses.  The  fort  was  even  then  in  a  state  of  abandonment,  the  French 
having  evacuated  it  in  1760  after  the  surrender  of  Canada  to  Britain. 
The  village  was  French  and  Indian  until  the  Jay  treaty  and  the  session  of 
1796. 

Sault  Ste.  Marie  has  had  its  captains  of  industry  and  of  romance.  Its 
great  captain  of  romance  was  John  Johnston.  He  was  an  Irishman  of  noble 
birth.  He  ^^■as  born  in  Antrim  county,  Ireland,  near  the  village  of  Colraine, 
Aug.  25,  1762.  His  father  was  a  civil  engineer  who  planned  and  executed 
the  waterworks  at  Belfast.  His  mother  was  the  sister  of  Mary  Saurin,  wife 
of  Bishop  Saurin  of  Dromore  and  also  a  sister  of  the  attorney  general  for 
Ireland.    Johnston  emigrated  to  America  in  1792  and  was  received  by  Lord 

territory  southward.  They  left  St.  Ignace  May  17,  1673,  passing  into  Lake  Michigan  and 
following  its  north  shore.  Roing  down  Green  Bay  to  the  Fox  river.  The  two  travelers  ascended 
the  Fox  river  to  its  head,  crossed  by  a  short  portage  to  the  Wisconsin  river,  and  following  that 
stream,  reached  the  Mississippi  June  17,  1673.  They  continued  their  journey  until  they  reached 
the  month  of  the  Arkansas.  Ketnrning,  Marquette  ascended  the  Illinois  river  and  continued  his 
journey  to  (ireen  Bay  by  way  of  the  lake,  and  reached  there  late  in  September.  That  winter 
and  the  following  si'.mnier  Marquette  spent  at  Green  Bay.  He  embarked  again  March  30,  with 
two  attendants,  and  reached  the  Illinois  on  April  8.  He  observed,  however,  that  his  strength 
was  declining,  and  resolved  to  return  to  St.  Ignace.  He  and  his  two  Indian  followers  coasted 
along  the  eastern  shore  of  Lake  Michigan  until  they  reached  the  mouth  of  the  river  that  after- 
wards bore  his  name.  Marquette  realized  that  he  was  dying,  and  pointing  to  a  rising  piece  of 
ground,  gave  directions  for  his  interment  there.  On  Saturday,  May  18,  1675,  he  died  and 
was  bv.ried  by  the  two  Indians  where  he  directed.  Two  years  later  the  body  was  disinterred 
by  the  Ottawa  Indians  and  accompanied  by  a  funeral  of  nearly  30  canoes,  was  taken  to  St.  Ignace. 
Under  the  s'.'.nervision  of  F'ather  Nouvel  the  body  was  deposited  in  a  little  vault  in  the  middle 
of   the   church   at    St.    Ignace,    on   June   9,    1677. 

The  second  volume  of  La  Hontan's  Travels  contains  a  description  and  plan  of  the  mission 
at  St.  Ignace,  as  it  was  in  1688,  11  years  after  Marquette's  burial.  It  was  through  the  aid  of 
this  plan  that  Marquette's  remains  were  discovered  200  years  after  they  were  buried  and  after 
all  trace  of  the  mission  had  been  totally  obliterated.  The  plan  plainly  indicated  that  the 
old  mission  house  must  have  stood  in  no  place  else  than  at  Point  St.  Ignace.  A  large  cross 
was  known  by  the  French  and  Indians  to  have  stood  on  or  near  the  beach  of  East  Moran  Bay, 
and  the  tradition  is  that  the  cross  marked  the  site  of  the  old  church  that  once  stood  there.  On 
May  4,  1S77.  nearly  200  years  after  Marquette's  burial,  Peter  Grondin,  occupied  in  clearing 
ground  on  claim  19  for  Patrick  Murray  Jr.,  discovered  a  rude  foundation  36x40  feet,  the 
smaller  side  facing  the  lake.  This  old  foundation  consisted  of  flat  limestones  covered  with  sand 
or  soil.  Immediately  adjoining  to  the  west  were  plain  traces  of  a  large  building  divided  into 
three  compartments,  and  having  three  fireplaces.  The  whole  plan  looked  like  the  mission  of  the 
Jesuits,  with  the  church  adioining,  the  house,  .sacristy  and  workshop.  The  Rev.  Father  Jacker 
became  deeply  interested  in  it  and  caused  excavations  to  be  made.  Pieces  of  glassware,  broken 
statuary  r.nd  other  indications  of  a  church  were  found,  and  near  the  western  end  of  the  cellar, 
two  feet  below  the  ordinary  cellar,  what  was  supposed  to  be  a  box  containing  Marquette's 
remains  was  found.  It  contained  a  number  of  small  pieces  of  bones  from  different  parts  of 
the    human    frame,    such   as    the    skull,    hands   and    feet,    limbs    and    spine. 


SAULT  STE.   MARIE  BEFORE  THE   CANAL  93 

Dorchester,  Governor  General  of  Canada,  to  whom  he  presented  such  fine 
letters  of  recommendation  that  the  governor  begged  him  to  remain  in  Mon- 
treal until  an  opening  for  him  should  occur  in  the  British  service.  Johnston, 
however,  soon  joined  a  trading  party  bound  for  Lake  Superior.  He  spent 
some  months  at  Sault  Ste.  Marie  and  then  followed  Lake  Superior  as  far 
west  as  La  Pointe  opposite  the  Twelve  Apostle  islands,  where  he  established 
a  trading  post. 

It  was  while  trading  for  furs  with  Waub-O-jeeg,'"  chief  of  the  Chip- 
pewas,  that  he  met  the  chief's  beautiful  daughter  O-shaw-gus-co-day-way- 
qua,  which  translated  means  Daughter  of  the  Green  Mountain.  This  forest- 
bred  girl  seems  indeed  to  have  been  of  singular  beauty  of  person  and 
nobility  of  character.  Johnston  with  all  the  impetuosity  of  his  race  fell 
madly  in  love  v/ith  her  and  immediately  asked  the  chief  to  give  her  to  him 
in  marriage.     Waub-0-jeeg  refused. 

"Your  customs  are  not  our  customs,"  he  said.  "Your  ways  are  not  our 
ways.  The  white  man  desires  our  women  only  so  long  as  they  please 
the  eye." 

Johnston  protested  so  eloquently  and  so  sincerely  that  Waub-O-jeeg 
finally  counseled  him  to   return   to   Montreal  and  to   remain   some   months 

*Waub-0-jeeg  was  the  second  son  of  the  famous  Mongazida.  Once  when  the  latter  went 
out  to  his  fall  hunt,  on  the  grounds  near  Sioux  territory,  taking  all  his  relatives  with  him 
(upwards  of  twenty  in  number),  they  were  attacked  by  the  Sioux  at  early  dawn.  The  first 
volley  had  gone  through  the  lodges:  before  the  second  could  be  fired  Mongazida  rushed  out  and 
proclaiming  his  own  name  with  a  loud  voice  demanded  if  Wabash,  his  mother's  son,  was  among 
the  assailants.  There  was  a  pause,  and  then  a  tall  figure  in  his  war  dress,  and  a  profusion  of 
feathers  on  his  head,  stepped  forward  and  gave  his  hand  to  his  half  brother.  They  repaired  to 
the  lodge  in  peace  together,  but  the  moment  the  "Sioux  chief  stooped  to  enter,  Waub-O-jeeg,  then 
a  boy  eight  years  old.  who  had  planted  himself  at  the  entrance  to  defend  it,  struck  him  a  blow 
on  the  forehead  with  his  little  war  club.  Wabash,  enchanted,  took  hiin  up  in  his  arms  and 
prophesied  that  he  would  become  a  great  war  chief  and  an  implacable  enemy  of  the  Sioux. 
Subsequently  this  prophesy  was  accomplished  and  Waub-O-jeeg  commanded  the  nation  in  all 
the  war  parties  against  the  Sioux  and  Ottagamies.  He  was  generally  victorious  and  so  entirely 
defeated  the  Ottagamies  that  they  never  afterwards  ventured  to  oppose  him  but  retired  down 
the  Wisconsin  '  river  where  they  settled.  But  Waub-O-jeeg  was  something  more  and  better  than 
a  successful  warrior;  he  was  reinarkable  for  his  eloquence  and  composed  a  number  of  war  songs 
which  were  S'.mg  through  the  Chippewa  villages  and  some  of  which  his  daughter  often  repeated. 
He  was  no  less  skillful  in  hunting  than  in  war.  His  hunting  grounds  extended  to  the  river 
Broule  at  Fond  du  Lac;  and  he  killed  anyone  who  dared  intrude  on  his  district.  The  skins 
he  took  annually  were  worth  $350,  a  sum  amply  sufficient  to  make  him  rich  in  clothing,  arms, 
powder,  vermillion  and  trinkets.  Like  Tecumseh  he  would  not  marry  lest  it  should  turn  his 
attention  from  war,  but  at  the  age  of  thirty  he  married  a  widow  by  whom  he  had  two  sons. 
Becoming  tired  of  his  elderly  helpmate  he  took  a  young  wife,  a  beautiful  girl  of  fourteen,  by 
whom  he  had  six  children;  of  these  Mrs.  Johnston  was  the  eldest.  She  described  he'r  father  as 
domestic  and  affectionate.  "There  was  always  plenty  of  bear's  meat  and  deer's  flesh  in  the 
lodge,"  she  said.  He  had  a  splendid  lodge  60  feet  in  length  which  he  was  fond  of  ornamenting. 
In  the  center  there  was  a  strong  post,  which  rose  several  feet  above  the  roof,  and  on  the  top 
there  was  the  carved  figure  of  an  owl  which  veered  with  the  wind.  This  owl  seems  to  have 
answered  the  purpose  of  a  flag.  It  was  the  insignia  of  his  power  and  his  presence.  When 
absent  on   his  long  winter   hunts  the   lodge  was   shut   up    and  the   owl   taken   down. 


94 


THE  HONORABLE  PETER  WHITE 


there  among  his  own  people.  He  reasoned  with  him  that  he  would  find  a 
girl  among  the  French  and  English  there  more  to  his  liking,  but  Johnston 
protested  vehemently  that  he  would  not.  Waub-O-jeeg,  however,  remained 
obdurate. 

"If,"  said  he,  finally,  "the  women  of  the  pale  faces  do  not  put  my  child 
out  of  your  mind,  return  in  the  spring  and  we  will  talk  further." 

Johnston  spent  a  disconsolate  winter  in  Montreal  but  returned  in  the 
spring  of  1793  to  claim  his  Indian  bride.  Waub-O-jeeg  gave  her  to  him 
upon  the  injunction  that  she  was  to  remain  his  wife  forever. 


^rm 


L'/i.lk* 


^iliilti^^ 


i.w. 


Johnston's  house  as  it  appkars  today — a  view  from  the  street  front. 


Previous  to  her  marriage,  according  to  the  Indian  custom,  she  fasted 
for  a  guardian  spirit.  To  perform  this  ceremony  she  went  away  to  the 
summit  of  an  eminence  and  built  herself  a  little  lodge  of  cedar  boughs, 
painted  herself  black  and  began  her  fast  in  solitude.  She  fasted  for  ten 
days  during  which  time  her  grandmother  brought  her  water  at  intervals. 
At  the  end  of  the  tenth  day  she  returned  to  her  father's  lodge  carrying  green 


SAULT  STE.   ^lARlE   BEFORE  THE   CANAL 


95 


cedar  boughs  which  she  threw  upon  the  ground  stepping  upon  them  as 
she  went.  When  she  entered  the  lodge  she  threw  some  more  down  upon 
the  place  where  she  usually  sat  and  then  took  her  seat  next  to  her  mother. 
During  the  ten  succeeding  days  she  was  not  permitted  to  eat  any  meat  nor 
anything  but  a  little  corn  boiled  with  a  bitter  herb.  For  ten  days  more  she 
ate  meat  smoked  in  a  particular  manner  and  then  partook  of  the  usual  food 
of  the  family. 

But  notwithstanding  the  fact  that  all  the  presentments  which  she  could 
conjure  up  during  her  ordeal  were  favorable,  she  seems  to  have  felt  nothing 


JOHNSTON  S     HOUSI-:    AS    IT    APPEARS    TODAY — A    VIEW     FROM     THE    RIVER    FRONT. 


throughout  the  whole  negotiations  for  her  hand  but  reluctance,  aversion  and 
terror.  On  being  carried  with  the  usual  ceremonies  to  her  husband's  lodge 
she  fled  into  a  dark  corner,  rolled  herself  up  in  a  blanket  and  would  not  be 
comforted  or  even  looked  upon.  It  is  to  the  honor  of  Johnston  that  he 
took  no  advantage  of  their  mutual  position  but  that  during  ten  days  he 
treated  her  with  the  utmost  tenderness  and  respect  and  sought  by  everv 


96  THE  HONORABLE  PETER  WHITE 

gentle  means  to  overcome  her  fear  and  to  gain  her  affection.  One  traveler 
referring  to  this  incident  says  that  it  was  touching  to  see  how  tenderly  and 
gratefully  this  w^as  remembered  by  his  wife  after  a  lapse  of  thirty-six  years. 
On  the  tenth  day,  however,  she  ran  away  from  him  in  a  paroxysm  of  terror, 
and  after  fasting  in  the  woods  for  four  days,  reached  her  grandmother's 
wigwam.  Meantime  her  father,  Waub-0-jeeg,  who  was  far  off  in  his 
hunting  camp,  learned  that  his  daughter  had  not  conducted  herself  according 
to  his  advice,  and  he  returned  in  haste,  a  two  days'  journey,  to  see  after 
her.  He  whipped  her  with  a  stick  and  threatened  to  cut  off  both  her  ears. 
He  then  took  her  back  to  her  husband  with  a  present  of  furs  and  Indian 
corn,  and  with  many  apologies  and  protestations  of  good  faith  on  his  part. 

Johnston  succeeded  at  last  in  taming  this  shy  wild  fawn  and  took  her 
to  his  home  at  Sault  Ste.  Marie.  When  she  had  been  there  some  time  she 
was  seized  with  a  longing  to  revisit  her  people.  Her  husband  had  lately 
purchased  a  small  schooner  to  trade  upon  the  lakes.  He  fitted  the  vessel 
out  and  sent  her  with  a  retinue  of  his  clerks  and  retainers  and  in  such  state 
as  became  the  wife  of  "the  great  Englishman,"  to  her  home  at  La  Pointe, 
loaded  with  magnificent  presents  for  all  her  family.  Apparently  from 
motives  of  delicacy  and  that  there  might  be  no  constraint  upon  her  feelings 
and  movements  he  did  not  accompany  her  himself.  A  few  months  resi- 
dence amid  comparative  splendor  and  luxury  with  a  man  wdio  treated  her 
with  respect  and  tenderness  enabled  her  to  contrast  her  former  with  her 
present  home.  She  soon  returned  to  her  husband  voluntarily  and  lived  most 
happily  with  him  until  his  death. 

Johnston  built  a  large  house  near  the  site  of  the  old  cemetery  on  the 
river  bank  and  just  below  where  old  Fort  Brady  was  built  later  on.  The 
house  was  elegant  for  its  time  and  has  become  historic.  It  was  a  long,  low, 
well  built  log  house  in  a  beautiful  old-fashioned  garden.  On  the  great 
sideboard  in  the  dining  room  were  arranged  many  pieces  of  solid  silverware 
brought  from  Ireland  and  always  in  the  same  place. 

Johnston's  sons  and  daughters  were  sent  away  to  school  but  were 
trained  at  home  to  the  strict  conventionalities  of  the  life  in  which  he  had 
been  reared.  In  1807  Johnston  visited  Ireland,  taking  with  him  his  daughter 
Jane  in  whose  society  he  seems  to  have  taken  especial  delight.  He  traveled 
throughout  Europe  with  his  daughter  completing  her  education.  Several 
propositions  were  made  to  him  while  abroad  to  remain.  The  Duchess  of 
Devonshire,  it  is  related,  desired  to  adopt  Jane.  Johnston's  own  friends 
and  relatives  joined  to  keep  him  among  them,  but  to  all  influences  and  per- 
suasion to  remain  he  turned  a  deaf  ear. 


SAULT  STE.   MARIE  BEFORE  THE   CANAL 


97 


When  Johnston  returned  to  Sanlt  Ste.  Marie  from  a  long  stay  in 
Europe,  Jane  became  the  wife  of  Henry  R.  Schoolcraft,  the  historian  and 
writer,  upon  whose  Ojibway  legends  which  he  was  at  great  pains  to  collect, 
Longfellow  founded  his  beautiful  poem  of  Hiawatha. 

The  great  business  of  the  peninsula  in  those  days  was  the  taking  of 
furs.  In  1797  the  North  West  Company,  which  was  at  first  a  rival  of  the 
Hudson  Bay  Fur  Co.  but  later  consolidated  with  it,  constructed  on  the 
Canadian  side  a  sluiceway  for  the  passage  of  loaded  bateaux  around  the 
falls  of  St.  Mary  by  a  gradual  incline  to  a  lift  lock  38  ft.  long  and  8  ft.  9  in. 
wide,  with  a  lift  of  9  ft.  which  was  about  half  the  total  fall  at  the  rapids. 
A  tow  path  was  made  along  the  shore  for  oxen  to  pull  the  bateaux  and 


THE   OLD    HUDSON    BAY   CO.  S   LOCK,   AS   RESTORED   BY    MR.    FRANCIS    H.    CLERGUE. 


canoes  through  the  remainder  of  the  rapids.*  This  old  lock  was  demolished 
in  1814  by  United  States  troops  from  Mackinac  Island  under  command  of 
Alajor  Holmes,  when  every  building  in  the  vicinity  was  burned.  The  man- 
ner of  its  destruction  was  this  : 

*Tl;e  life  of  this  old  lock,  which  was  built  of  dressed  timber,  was  about  sixteen  years,  and 
it  had  been  completely  forgotten  that  such  a  channel  had  ever  existed.  In  1889  Judge  Joseph 
H.  Steere,  of  Sault  Ste.  Marie,  a  man  whose  recreation  has  consisted  largely  of  looking'  up  the 
history  of  former  conditions  in  the  Lake  Superior  country,  ran  across  the  following  description 
of  the  old  canal  and  lock,  writtc-n  by  Capt.  Bruyeres,  of  the  English  armv,  under  date  of  Sept. 
10,    1802: 

"The  landing  is  in  a  bay  immediately  at  the  bottom  of  the  fall  on  the  nearest  channel  to 
the  land  of  the  north  shore.  A  good  wharf  for  boats  is  built  at  the  landing  on  which  a 
store   house   60    ft.   long,    30    ft.    wide,    is    erected.      The    wharf    is    planked   and    pathways    made    and 


98  THE  HONORABLE  PETER  WHITE 

Lieutenant  Colonel  Croghan  of  the  United  States  Army  was  sent  to 
capture  the  British  position  at  Mackinac  then ,  commanded  by  Colonel  Mc- 
Dowell. McDowell  learned  of  their  coming  and  sought  the  aid  of  Johnston 
and  his  friends  at  the  Sault.  Johnston  provisioned  and  equipped  a  force 
of  lOO  Indians  and  set  out  to  the  relief  of  Mackinac.  Major  Holmes  was 
sent  to  intercept  Johnston  and  his  Indian  band  but  they  evaded  him  by 
taking  the  unknown  route  west  of  Sugar  island  (now  Hay  Lake  channel) 
and  then  through  Neebish.  When  Holmes  reached  Sault  Ste.  Marie  he  was 
so  enraged  that  those  whom  he  had  set  out  to  intercept  had  evaded  his 
vigilance  that  he  completely  destroyed  the  village  of  Sault  Ste.  Marie.  He 
then  returned  to  Mackinac  to  aid  in  the  assault  under  Colonel  Croghan  and 
was  among  the  number  killed  in  the  affair  of  August  4,  1814.  His  sword 
was  stolen  by  the  Indians  and  presented  to  George  Johnston,  the  second  son 
of  John  Johnston. 

At  the  peace  of  181 5  Johnston  appealed  first  to  the  British  and  then 
to  the  United  States  government  to  compensate  him  for  his  losses  in  the 
destruction  of  Sault  Ste.  Marie,  but  met  with  no  success.  The  evidence 
showed  that  Johnston  was  an  officer  in  the  British  service  during  the  war  of 
1812  and  it  was  largely  for  this  reason  that  the  Commissioner  of  the  General 
Land  Office  at  Washington  refused  to  confirm  his  claim  to  a  tract  of  land 
at  Sault  Ste.  Marie,  which  had  been  improved  and  a  number  of  buildings, 
including  the  Johnston   residence,  built   thereon. 

The  American  occupation  of  Sault  Ste.  Marie  may  be  said  to  have 
begun  in  1820,  when  General  Cass  went  up  in  bateaux  with  a  force  of 
sixty-six  men  to  establish  a  trading  post.  They  found  the  British  flag  still 
flying  and  Cass  pulled  it  down  Avith  his  own  hands  and  obtained  the  con- 

planked  all  around  it.  Close  to  the  store  a  lock  is  constructed  for  boats  and  canoes,  being  38  ft. 
long,  8  ft.  9  in.  wide.  The  lower  gate  lets  down  by  a  windlass;  the  upper  has  two  folding 
gates  with  a  sluice.  The  water  rises  9  ft.  in  the  lock.  A  leading  trough  of  timber,  framed 
and  planked,  300  ft.  in  length,  8  ft.  9  in.  wide,  8  ft.  high,  supported  and  leveled  on  beams  of 
cedar  through  the  swamp  is  constructed  to  conduct  the  water  from  the  canal  to  the  lock.  A  road 
raised  and  planked  12  ft.  wide  for  cattle  extends  the  whole  length  of  the  trough.  The  canal 
begins  at  the  head  of  it,  which  is  a  channel  cleared  of  rocks  and  the  projecting  points  excavated 
to  admit  the  passage  of  canoes  and  boats.  This  canal  is  about  2.580  ft.  in  length,  with  a  raised 
bridge  or  pathway  of  round  logs  at  the  side  of  it  12  ft.  wide  for  oxen  to  track  the  boats. 
About  170  ft.  from  the  upper  part  of  the  canal  a  store  house  is  built.  36  ft.  long,  23  ft.  wide. 
An  excellent  saw  mill  for  two  saws  is  constructed  and  placed  in  a  line  with  the  lock,  parallel 
to    it." 

Judge  Steere  was  greatly  interested  in  this  description  and  calling  to  his  aid  his  fellow 
townsman,  Joseph  Cozzens,  provincial  land  surveyor  of  Sault  Ste.  Marie,  Out.,  and  1*-.  S. 
Wheeler,  general  superintendent  of  St.  Mary's  Falls  canal,  they  jointly  made  a  search  and  were 
rewarded  by  finding  the  remains  of  this,  the  earliest  of  the  artificial  waterways  of  the  great 
lakes.  When  Francis  H.  Clerguc  established  the  group  of  industries  at  Sault  Ste.  Marie  that  bear 
his  name,  he  caused  this  old  lock  to  be  restored  in  stone,  affording  a  striking  object  lesson  of 
the   commercial   growth   of   a   century. 


SAULT  STE.   ^lARIE  BEFORE  THE   CANAL  99 

cession  from  the  Indians  to  build  a  fort.  At  that  time  there  were  fortv 
lodges  of  Chippewa  Indians  and  two  hundred  inhabitants  at  Sault  Ste. 
Marie.  This  treaty  of  cession,  however,  would  probably  not  have  been  ob- 
tained had  not  Mrs.  Johnston  taken  an  active  interest  in  it.  She  perceived 
that  the  Indians  were  suspicious  of  the  newcomers  and  were  even  plottin'g 
an  attack  upon  the  general  and  his  party  at  night.  She  acted  with  the  ut- 
most celerity  and  called  the  leading  chiefs  to  her  for  a  secret  conference  at 
a  neighboring  rendezvous,  where  with  much  directness  she  enlightened 
them  as  to  the  object  of  the  visit  and  the  ultimate  futility  of  resistance. 
So  great  was  the  respect  in  which  they  held  her  judgment  that  the  chiefs 
later  counseled  the  gathering  braves  to  disperse  and  the  treaty  was  signed 
forthwith.  General  Cass  was  fully  sensible  of  Mrs.  Johnston's  offices  and 
always  maintained  that  the  United  States  Government  owed  her  a  debt  of 
gratitude  while  he  himself  probably  owed  her  his  life.* 

*  All  of  the  early  travelers  to  the  Lake  Superior  country  speak  of  the  charming  hospitality 
of  the  .Tohnston  family,  hut  probably  the  most  interesting  account  of  all  is  that  written  by  Col. 
Thomas  L.  McKenney,  of  the  Indian  department  at  Washington,  who  was  a  joint  commissioner 
with    General    Cass   in   negotiating   the   treaty   of    Fond    du   Lac   in    1826. 

This  trip  to-day  would  be  regarded  as  an  extremely  hazardous  undertaking,  for  upon  this 
occasion  Cass  and  McKenney  traveled  the  entire  distance  between  Sault  Ste.  Marie  and  Fond 
du  Lac  in  canoes.  While  at  the  Sault  General  Cass  and  Colonel  McKenney  were  entertained 
at  the  Johnston  homestead,  and  in  a  letter  to  his  wife  Colonel  McKenney  described  the  home 
as   it   appeared  at   that   time.      He   said: 

"A  personal  acquaintance  with  Mr.  Johnston  and  his  family  I  esteem  to  be  among  the 
most  interesting  circumstances  of  my,  so  far,  agreeable  travels.  Mr.  Johnston  is  in  his  sixty- 
fourth  year;  and  Mrs.  Johnston  in  her  fifty-fourth.  He  is  feeble  and  decrepit,  A  free  liver 
in  earlier  life  he  now  feels  the  burden  of  sixty-four  winters  to  be  great,  and  in  addition  to  the 
infirm  state  of  his  health,  he  has  the  dropsy  in  one  foot  and  ankle,  which  at  times  occasions  him 
great  pain,  and  often  deorives  him  altogether  of  ability  to  walk,  which  he  never  does  without 
limping,  and  then  by  the  aid  of  a  staff.  His  education  and  intercourse  with  polished  society, 
in  early  life,  indeed  up  to  his  thirtieth  year,  has  given  him  many  very  striking  advantages  over 
the  inhabitants  of  these  distant  regions,  and  indeed  fit  him  to  shine  anywhere;  whilst  the 
genuine  Irish  hospitality  of  his  heart,  has  made  his  house  a  place  of  most  agreeable  resort  to 
travelers.  In  his  person  Mr.  Tohnston  is  neat;  in  manners,  affable  and  polite;  in  conversation, 
intelligent.  His  language  is  always  that  of  thought,  and  often  strikingly  graphic.  He  is  always 
cheerful — even  when  he  is  afflicted  most.  There  is  something  charming  in  such  an  autumn.  It 
gives  place  to  winter  so  gradually  as  to  make  its  retirement  imperceptible.  In  height  Mr. 
Johnston  is  about  5  ft.  10  in. — and  before  he  was  bent  by  age  and  infirmity  his  figure  was 
doubtless  fine.  His  hair  is  of  the  true  Scotch  yellow,  intermixed  with  gray.  His  forehead, 
though  retreating  is  high  and  full,  especially  about  the  brows.  His  eyes  are  dark,  small  and 
penetrating,  and  full  of  intelligent  expression.  His  nose  and  mouth  (e-xcept  that  the  loss  of 
teeth  has  changed  the  character  of  the  latter  some,  though  his  lips  have  yet  great  firmness)  are 
well  formed,  and  judging  from  what  is  left,  and  from  a  portrait  which  hangs  over  the  fireplace 
in    the   drawing   room   of   his   residence   he   must   have  been   very   handsome   when   young. 

"Mrs.  Johnston  is  a  genuine  Chippewa  without  the  smallest  admixture  of  white  blood. 
She  is  tall  and  large,  but  uncommonly  active  and  cheerful.  She  dresses  nearly  in  the  costume 
of  her  nation — a  blue  petticoat  of  cloth,  a  short  gown  of  calico,  with  leggins  worked  with  beads, 
and  moccasins.  Her  hair  is  black.  She  plaits  and  fastens  it  up  behind  with  a  comb.  Her  eyes 
are  black  and  expressive,  and  pretty  well  marked,  according  to  phrenologists,  with  the  development 
of  language.  She  has  fine  teeth;  indeed  her  face,  taken  altogether  with  her  high  cheek  bones 
and  compressed  forehead  and  jutting  brows,  denotes  a  vigorous  intellect  and  great  firmness  of 
character,    and   needs    only   to   be   seen   to   satisfy   even   a   tyro    like   myself   in    physiognomy    that    she 


100  THE  HONORABLE  PETER  WHITE 

At  the  treaty  of  Fond  du  Lac,  concluded  August  7,  1827,  one  section 
of  land  was  given  to  Mrs.  Johnston  and  also  one  section  to  each  of  her 
children  and  grandchildren.  Part  of  this  land  was  selected  from  the  high- 
lands of  Sugar  island,  a  few  miles  below  the  Sault. 

'required  only  the  advantages  of  education  and  society  to  have  placed  her  on  a  level  with  the 
most  distinguished  of  her  sex.  As  it  is  she  is  a  prodigy.  As  a  wife  she  is  devoted  to  her 
husband,  as  a  mother  tender  and  affectionate,  as  a  friend  faithful.  She  manages  her  domestic 
affairs  in  a  way  that  might  afford  lessons  to  the  better  instructed.  They  are  rarely  exceeded 
anywhere,  whilst  she  vies  with  her  generous  husband  in  hospitality  to  strangers.  She  under- 
stands but  will  not  speak  English.  As  to  influence  there  is  no  chief  in  the  Chippewa  nation 
who  exercises  it  when  it  is  necessary  for  her  to  do  so,  with  equal  success.  This  has  been  often 
tested  but  especially  at  the  treaty  of  cession  at  this  place  in  1820.  Governor  Cass,  the  commis- 
sioner, was  made  fully  sensible  of  her  power  then,  for  when  every  evidence  was  given  out  that 
the  pending  negotiation  would  issue,  not  only  by  a  resistance  on  the  part  of  the  Indians  to  the 
propositions  of  the  commissioner,  but  in  a  serious  rupture,  she,  at  a  critical  moment  sent  for 
some  of  the  principal  chiefs,  directing  that  they  should,  to  avoid  the  observation  of  the  great 
body  of  Indians,  make  a  circuit  and  meet  her  in  an  avenue  at  the  back  of  her  residence;  and 
there  by  a  luminous  exposition  of  their  own  weakness  and  the  power  of  the  United  States,  and 
by  assurances  of  the  friendly  disposition  of  the  government  towards  them,  and  of  their  own 
mistaken  views  of  the  entire  object  of  the  commissioner,  produced  a  change  which  resulted,  on 
that  same  evening  in  the  conclusion  of  a  treaty.  I  have  heard  Governor  Cass  say  that  he  felt 
himself  then,  and  does  yet,  under  the  greatest  obligations  to  Mrs.  Johnston  for  her  co-operation 
at  that  critical  moment;  and  that  the  United  States  are  debtor  to  her,  not  only  on  account  of 
that  act,  but  on  many  others.  She  has  never  been  known  in  a  single  instance  to  counsel  her 
people  but  in  accordance  with  her  conceptions  of  what  was  best  for  them,  and  never  in  opposition 
to   the   views   of   the   government.      So   much    for   the    father   and   mother. 

"I  will  now  make  you  acquainted  with  some  of  the  children.  Of  Mrs.  Schoolcraft  (Jane) 
you  have  doubtless  heard.  She  is  the  wife  of  Henry  R.  Schoolcraft,  author  of  travels  and  other 
works  of  great  merit,  and  Indian  agent  at  this  place.  She  is  a  little  taller  and  thinner  but  in 
other  respects  as  to  figure  resembles  her  sister,  Mrs.  McMurray  (Charlotte)  and  has  her  face 
precisely.  Her  voice  is  feeble  and  tremulous.  Her  utterance  is  slow  and  distinct.  There  is 
something  silvery  in  it.  Mildness  of  expression,  softness  and  delicacy  of  manners  as  well  as 
of  voice,  characterize  her.  She  dresses  with  great  taste  and  in  all  respects  in  the  costume  of  our 
fashionables,  but  wears  leggins  of  black  silk,  drawn  and  ruffled  around  the  ankles.  You  would 
never  judge,  either  from  her  complexion  or  language  or  from  any  other  circumstance  that  her 
mother  was  a  Chippewa,  except  that  her  moderately  high  cheek  bones,  her  dark  and  fine  eye  and 
breadth  of  jaw  slightly  indicate  it;  and  you  would  never  believe  it,  except  on  her  own  confession 
or  upon  some  equally  respjonsible  testimony,  were  you  to  hear  her  converse,  or  to  see  her 
beautiful,  and  some  of  them  highly  finished  compositions,  in  both  prose  and  poetry.  You  would 
not  believe,  not  because  such  attainments  might  not  be  universal,  but  because,  from  lack  of  the 
means  necessary  for  their  accomplishment,  such  cases  are  so  rare.  Mrs.  Schoolcraft  is  indebted 
mainly  to  her  father,  who  is  dotingly  fond  of  her,  for  her  handsome  and  polished  acquirements. 
She  accompanied  him  some  years  ago,  and  before  her  marriage,  to  Europe;  and  has  been  the 
companion  of  his  solitude  in  all  that  related  to  mind,  for  he  seems  to  have  educated  her  for  the 
sake  of  enjoying  its  exercise.  The  old  gentleman,  when  in  Edinburgh,  had  several  propositions 
made  to  him  to  remain.  The  Duchess  of  Devonshire,  I  think  it  was,  would  have  adopted  Mrs. 
Schoolcraft;  and  several  propositions  besides  these  were  made  to  settle  upon  her  wealth  and  its 
distinctions,  and  his  own  friends  and  connections  joined  to  keep  him  among  them  by  offers  of 
great  magnitude.  But  he  told  them  he  had  married  the  daughter  of  a  king  in  America  and 
although  he  appreciated,  and  was  very  grateful  for  their  offers  to  himself  and  his  Jane,  he  must 
decline  them  and  return  to  his  wife,  who  through  such  a  variety  of  fortune  had  been  faithful 
and  devoted  to  him.  Mrs.  Schoolcraft  is,  I  should  judge,  about  twenty-two  years  of  age.  She 
would  be  an  ornament  to  any  society;  and  with  better  health,  for  at  present  she  enjoys  this 
great  blessing  but  partly,  would  take  first  rank  among  the  best  improved  whether  in  acquirements, 
in   taste   or   in    graces. 

"Charlotte  comes  next  in  order,  being  younger  than  Mrs.  Schoolcraft  by  some  two  or 
three    years.     Here    again,     without     the    advantages    of    education    to    the    same     extent,     or    equal 


SAULT   STE.    MARIE   BEFORE   THE    CANAL  101 

Following  the  death  of  her  husband,  which  occurred  on  Sept.  22,  1828, 
Mrs.  Johnston  turned  her  attention  to  the  manufacture  of  maple  sugar  on  her 
estate  and  each  year  marketed  several  tons.  In  the  fall  she  would  go  with  her 
people  in  canoes  to  the  entrance  of  Lake  Superior  to  fish  in  the  bays  and 
creeks  for  a  fortnight,  and  return  w^ith  a  load  of  fish  cured  for  winter  con- 
sumption. In  her  youth  she  hunted  and  was  accounted  the  surest  eye  and 
fleetest  foot  among  the  w'omen  of  her  tribe.  Her  talents,  energy,  activity  and 
strength  of  mind,  and  her  skill  in  all  the  domestic  avocations  of  Indian 
women,  maintained  comfort  and  plenty  within  her  dwelling  in  spite  of  the 
loss  of  her  husband.  Her  descent  from  the  blood  of  ancient  chiefs  rendered 
her  an  object  of  great  veneration  among  the  Indians,  who  in  all  their  mis- 
eries, maladies  and  difficulties  appealed  to  her  for  aid  and  counsel.  She  died 
at  Sault  Ste.  jMarie  in  1843.* 

opportunities  for  improvement,  but  with  no  deficiencies  in  these  matters  you  have  a  beautiful 
specimen  of  female  mixed  blood.  This  interesting  yoimo;  lady  has  but  little  of  her  mother's  com- 
plexion. She  possesses  charms  which  are  only  now  and  then  seen  in  our  more  populous  and 
polished  circles.  These  are  in  the  form  and  expression  of  a  beautiful  face  where  the  best  and 
most  amiable  and  cheerful  of  tempers — the  loveliest  and  most  captivating  ornament  of  her  sex 
— sits  always  with  the  sweetness  of  spring,  and  from  whence  the  graces  seem  never  to  have 
departed  even  for  a  moment — and  all  this  has  imparted  to  it  an  additional  interest  in  her  own 
total  unconsciousness  of  their  presence  and  of  her  powers  to  please.  Her  eyes  are  black  but  soft 
in  their  expression  and  between  her  lips,  which  I  have  never  seen  otherwise  than  half  parted 
with  a  smile,  is  a  beautiful  set  of  ivory.  Her  style  of  dress  is  neat  and  in  all  respects  such  as 
we  see  in  our  cities.  She  would  be  said  to  be  rather  tall.  Yet  her  person  is  good.  She  sings 
most  sweetly  but  seems  unconscious  of  it.  My  opinion  of  Charlotte  is  that  she  would  be  a  belle 
in  Washington,  were  she  there,  as  I  find  she  is  here.  No  one  speaks  of  her  but  in  terms  of 
admiration  of  her  amiable  disposition  and  in  praise  of  her  beauty;  and  according  to  my  observa- 
tion  and   taste   she    merits    richly   all    the   praise    that    is    bestowed. 

"Eliza,  who  is  older  than  either  Mrs.  Schoolcraft  or  Charlotte,  has  never  yet  consented 
to  speak  English.  I  have  not,  therefore,  been  able  to  judge  of  her  improvement.  She  appears 
to  be  a  fine  young  lady  and  of  excellent  disposition.  Her  complexion  is  more  like  her  mother's 
than  the  rest.  The  youngest,  Anna  Maria,  is  now  about  twelve  years  old  and  is  growing  up, 
I  think,  in  most  respects  like  Charlotte.  She  certainly  bids  fair  to  be  handsome.  When  I  look 
upon  this  group  of  interesting  children,  and  reflect  that  their  mother  is  a  native  of  our  wilds, 
I  wish  for  the  sake  of  the  Indians  that  every  representative  of  the  people,  and  all  who  might 
have  influence  to  bring  abovit  a  complete  system  for  the  preservation  and  improvement  of  at 
least   the  rising  generation,   could   see   them  too." 

*  There  were  eight  children  in  the  Johnston  family,  all  born  at  the  Sault:  Louis,  born 
1794,  died  at  Maiden,  1825;  George,  born  1796,  died  at  the  Sault,  Jan.  6,  1861;  Jane,  born  1800; 
Eliza,  born  1802.  died  at  the  Sault,  1888;  Charlotte,  born  1806,  died  at  the  Sault,  1878;  William, 
born  1811.  died  at  Mackinac,  1866;  Anna  Maria,  born  1814,  died  at  Pontiac,  1856;  John  Mc- 
Dougall,  born  1816.  died  at  the  Sault,  Feb.  14,  1895.  Of  the  children  several  were  prominent 
in  making  history  three  quarters  of  a  century  ago.  Louis  served  on  board  the  Queen  when 
she  was  captured  by  one  of  the  United  States  gunboats  under  Commodore  Perry  on  Lake  Erie 
in  1813.  George  served  in  the  British  army  and  was  in  the  engagement  at  Mackinac  Island, 
August  4.  1814.  William  was  an  Indian  interpreter  at  various  times  for  the  United  States 
government.  John  McDougall  was  for  a  number  of  years  Indian  interpreter  to  his  brother-in-law, 
Henry  R.  Schoolcraft,  and  afterwards  acted  in  that  capacity  for  the  United  States  government. 
Jane  was  married  in  1823  to  Henry  R.  Schoolcraft,  the  historian  and  writer.  Eliza  never 
married.  Charlotte  becam.e  the  wife  of  an  Episcopal  clergyman  named  W^illiam  McMurray,  a 
missionary  at  the  Sault  at  the  time  but  subsequently  archdeacon  of  Niagara.  Anna  Maria 
became  the  wife  of  James  L.  Schoolcraft,  who  was  mysteriously  murdered  at  the  Sault  in  1846 
as   narrated   elsewhere   in   this  book. 


102  THE  HONORABLE  PETER  WHITE 

It  was  on  Get.  9,  1828,  that  the  Rev.  Abel  Bingham  arrived  at  Sault 
Ste.  Marie  to  establish  a  mission.  After  holding  services  in  the  morning 
for  the  white  population  it  was  his  custom  to  hold  a  service  on  Sunday 
afternoon  for  the  Indians.  Miss  Charlotte  Johnston  was  his  first  inter- 
preter. For  a  time  life  occupied  the  same  building  where  Lewis  Cass  made 
the  government  treaty  with  the  Indians  and  where  his  daughter  Angelina 
was  born.  He  built,  however,  a  mission  house  on  government  property 
and  moved  into  it  on  Nov.  16. 

His  first  acquaintance  among  the  Indians  was  with  Shegud,  one  of  the 
minor  chiefs,  who  afterwards  became  a  deacon  of  his  church.  He  extended 
his  mission  work  among  the  Indians  as  far  wxst  as  Marquette,  in  summer 
traveling  in  his  canoe  and  in  winter  on  snow  shoes  with  his  dog  train. 
The  hardships  endured  during  these  journeys  were  great.  Many  times  in 
midwinter  he  was  obliged  to  take  off  his  moccasins  and  wade  barefoot 
through  streams  not  entirely  frozen  over,  he  and  his  interpreter  carrying 
the  dog  train. 

In  1837  it  is  recorded  that  there  were  three  merchants  at  the  Sault 
and  that  one  Indian  was  taxed.  Truly  this  Indian  must  have  felt  civ- 
ilization not  to  be  an  unmixed  blessing.  This  was  the  year  following 
Michigan's  admission  as  a  state  and  one  of  its  first  acts  inspired  by  Gov- 
ernor Mason  was  to  authorize  a  survey  for  a  canal  at  Sault  Ste.  ]\Iarie.  The 
American  Fur  Co.  at  the  time  maintained  quite  an  extensive  store  for  the 
purpose  of  supplying  its  agencies  scattered  throughout  the  Lake  Superior 
region  with  dry  goods,  hardware  and  groceries.  Meanwhile  Dr.  Houghton 
had  been  appointed  state  geologist  and  his  reports  of  the  discovery  of  cop- 
per in  the  peninsula,  cautious  as  they  were,  had  inflamed  the  country  and 
prospectors  were  beginning  to  arrive  in  the  Lake  Superior  region  in  consid- 
erable numbers.  The  prospectors  found  a  curiously  interesting  little  colony 
at  the  Sault,  consisting  of  about  two  hundred  persons  of  all  nations,  colors, 
grades  and  languages,  exclusive  of  the  Indian  lodges.  The  Indian  popu- 
lation found  its  main  aim  in  life  to  consist  of  hunting  and  cutting  wood  to 
supply  the  garrison  and  traders  with  fuel.  In  the  spring  they  made  sugar 
and  fished,  using  birch  bark  canoes,  scoop  nets  and  spears  in  the  latter 
employment;  in  the  summer  they  made  the  hay  for  the  household  use  in 
making  beds  as  well  as  feeding  the  little  stock  that  was  then  to  be  found 
about  the  Sault ;  in  October  and  November  they  laid  in  the  winter  supply  of 
fish  which  they  cured  by  drying  and  smoking,  and  sometimes  by  frost. 
During  the  winter  white  fish,  trout  and  herring  were  caught  by  the  use 
of  spears  through  the  ice,  for  as  a  rule  the  Indians  were  improvident  and 
lived  from  hand  to  mouth. 


SAULT   STE.   MARIE   BEFORE   THE   CANAL  103 

The  Indians  divided  the  years,  as  intimated,  into  fonr  seasons ;  in  the 
winter  hunting  and  chopping;  in  the  spring  sugar-making  and  fishing; 
in  the  summer  haying,  and  in  the  fail  again  fishing.  Each  Indian  secured 
from  the  traders  an  outfit  for  himself  and  his  family  at  the  beginning  of 
each  season.  It  must  be  admitted  that  the  prices  which  the  traders  charged 
the  Indians  were  exorbitant,  as  for  instance,  $1  a  yard  for  common  calico 
and  the  same  price  for  coarse,  flimsy  unbleached  cotton ;  $2  to  $3  a  pound 
for  tea  and  tobacco,  and  from  $50  to  $75  for  a  pair  of  Mackinac  blankets. 
If  the  trader  ever  had  any  conscience  on  this  score  it  was  Cjuieted  by  the 
invariable  habit  of  the  Indian  in  maintaining  that  he  had  wiped  out  what- 
ever indebtedness  stood  against  him  when  he  turned  over  the  result  of  his 
season's  eft"orts  to  the  trader,  and  he  would  never  thereafter  acknowledge 
any  indebtedness  whatever  for  his  outfit. 

The  influx  of  miners  made  it  necessary  to  establish  two  hotels  at  Sault 
Ste.  Marie  in  1845.  One  was  the  Van  Anden  House,  kept  by  Mr.  Joshua 
Van  Anden,  and  the  other  was  the  St.  Mary's  Hotel  opened  by  Mr.  Moses 
W.  Stevens.  Sault  Ste.  Marie  began  to  assume  an  air  of  importance.  It 
was  the  distributing  center  for  the  new  copper  country  and  a  growing 
business  was  being  done  in  portage.  Up  to  1845  the  line  of  communica- 
tion to  the  Sault  consisted  principally  of  the  steamer  Detroit,  which  made 
one  trip  a  week  from  Sault  Ste.  Marie  to  Detroit.  In  the  spring  of  1846, 
however,  one  or  two  additional  vessels  were  put  on.  Passengers  were  ar- 
riving, however,  in  greater  numbers  than  could  well  be  accommodated  in 
the  small  hotels,  and  they  accordingly  had  to  go  into  camp,  which  was 
usually  done  on  a  pleasantly-situated  point  near  the  foot  of  the  rapids, 
where  amusement  could  be  had  in  watching  the  Indians  and  half  breeds  in 
their  birch  bark  canoes  catching  the  delicious  white  fish. 

The  social  amusements  of  the  little  settlement  were  very  limited  and 
usually  consisted  in  the  winter  season  of  dances  given  at  the  homes  of  the 
half  breeds.  These  balls  were  invariably  inaugurated  through  the  giving 
of  a  small  dance  at  the  house  of  one  of  the  half  breeds  having  one  or  more 
daughters.  In  the  course  of  the  evening  one  of  the  daughters  would  quietly 
dance  up  to  one  of  the  white  guests  and  unknown  to  him  pin  a  ribbon  upon 
his  coat  collar,  indicating  that  he  had  been  selected  to  be  the  king  and  giver 
of  the  next  ball  and  that  she  would  gladly  be  his  partner  and  queen  for  the 
occasion.  The  music  was  furnished  by  an  old  French  fiddler,  who  from 
the  frequency  with  which  his  fiddle  string  broke,  was  known  throughout 
the  village  by  the  cognomen  of  "Excuse  a  la  cord." 

The  one  character  at  the  Sault  who  was  the  "bogie  man"  to  the  chil- 


104 


THE  HONORABLE  PETER  WHITE 


dren  and  a  source  of  worry  to  nearly  everyone,  was  John  Tanner,  common- 
ly known  as  "old  Tanner."  He  lived  in  a  neat,  comfortable,  white-painted 
honse  under  a  large  spreading  elm  tree  a  little  below  the  Indian  agency  on 
the  banks  of  the  river.  He  had  been  stolen  by  Indians  while  a  child  and 
had  been  brought  up  by  them.  He  lived  their  life  and  married  an  Indian 
woman.  Upon  her  death  he  was  married  to  a  white  woman  living  at  the 
Sault.  Tanner  was  subject  to  fits  of  violent  temper  so  intense  and  raging 
as  to  amount  almost  to  insanity,  so  that  his  white  wife  eventually  lived  in 
constant  fear  of  her  life.     This  had  been  noticed  bv  the  Saulteurs  for  some 


THE  i-:lms  uxni-K  which  tanner's  house  stood  as  they  appeared  in  1905. 


time,  so  that  during  a  temporary  absence  of  Tanner  from  home  she  was 
aided  by  Rev.  Mr.  Bingham  and  the  Schoolcrafts  in  escaping  and  returning 
to  her  old  home  in  Detroit.  Tanner  was  in  a  fearful  rage  about  it  and  went 
to  Detroit  and  tried  to  persuade  his  wife  to  return,  but  without  success. 
From  that  time  on  Tanner  was  more  or  less  insane.  He  nurtured  his 
hatred  in  characteristic  Indian  fashion  and  threatened  to  kill  everyone  who 


SAULT   STE.    MARIE   BEFORE   THE    CANAL  105 

had  been  concerned  in  spiriting  his  wife  away.  He  Hved  alone  in  his  cot- 
tage, since  none  of  his  children  by  his  first  Indian  wife  could  live  with  him  on 
account  of  his  violent  temper.  He  was  a  man  of  striking  personal  appear- 
ance, with  a  line  face  and  long,  flowing  white  hair,  parted  in  the  middle  and 
put  back  at  the  ears.  His  countenance,  however,  became  fearful  when  he 
was  enraged,  and  mischievous  children  could  invariably  be  quieted  by 
threatening  that  "old  Tanner"  would  get  them  if  they  did  not  behave. 

On  the  night  of  July  4th,  1846,  Tanner's  house  was  burned  down  and 
Tanner  himself  was  never  seen  again.  On  the  Monday  afternoon  follow- 
ing, James  Schoolcraft  sauntered  in  slippers  and  dressing  gown  from  the 
old  Johnston  homestead  where  he  lived,  for  a  walk  through  his  own 
grounds.  Directly  south  of  the  homestead  in  the  near  woods  was  a  clearing 
where  Mr.  Schoolcraft  raised  vegetables  and  which  he  called  the  farm. 
While  in  the  clearing  he  was  shot  through  the  heart  by  some  one  hidden  be- 
hind a  little  clump  of  bushes  nearby,  the  passage  of  the  bullet  being  distinctly 
cut  through  the  foliage.  Whether  he  saw  his  assailant  or  not  will  never 
be  known.  He  was  instantly  killed.  The  shot  was  heard  and  the  news 
of  the  murder  immediately  communicated  to  Major  Kingsbury  at  the  fort, 
who  immediately  evinced  the  utmost  agitation.  Rev.  Mr.  Bingham  was 
with  Major  Kingsbury  at  that  very  moment  talking  over  the  advisability  of 
imprisoning  Tanner  for  threatening  the  lives  of  several  white  citizens.  In 
the  crowd  which  soon  collected  about  the  prostrate  form  of  Schoolcraft  was 
a  bov  fifteen  vears  old  named  Peter  White — a  voung  roustabout  looking  for 
work.  The  wadding  of  the  gun  was  found  close  by  on  the  ground  and 
proved  to  be  a  leaf  from  a  hymn  book  used  at  the  Baptist  mission  chapel 
services  where  Tanner  had  formerly  been  employed  as  interpreter  at  the 
Sunday  afternoon  services,  which  were  conducted  in  the  Indian  language. 
The  excitement  precipitated  by  this  murder  was  intense.  Men  and  boys 
armed  with  guns  started  out  to  hunt  Tanner  with  the  intention  of  shoot- 
ing him  at  sight,  but  it  was  a  noticeable  fact  and  much  laughed  at  later  that 
no  one  ventured  very  deeply  into  the  woods  where,  if  anywhere,  he  was 
sure  to  be.  There  were  many  wild  stories  of  seeing  Tanner;  of  finding  a 
man's  bones,  gun  and  clothing ;  also  of  a  mysterious  white  man  with  long 
white  locks  but  with  Indian  nature  being  seen  among  the  wild  Indians  in 
the  North,  who  told  wonderful  stories  and  did  strange  things ;  but  none 
of  these  were  ever  sufficiently  authenticated  to  aid  in  clearing  up  the  mys- 
tery of  the  tragedy.  That  season  at  the  Sault  was  called  the  Tanner 
summer  and  was  full  of  exciting  incidents.  Everyone  was  afraid  of  Tanner 
in  some  way  or  other.  The  militarv  post  for  two  months  sent  a  regularly- 
armed  guard  everv  night  to  patrol  the  Baptist  mission  grounds  and  many 


106  THE  HONORABLE  PETER  WHITE 

tragic  scenes  and  narrow  escapes  from  being  mistaken  for  Tanner  and  shot 
by  the  guard  occurred.  People  who  went  out  evenings  went  armed  to 
sjioot  "old  Tanner,"  and  he  was  conjured  up  in  their  imagination  in  every 
dark  corner.  Every  animal  that  died  old  Tanner  had  killed ;  everything 
that  was  lost  old  Tanner  had  stolen ;  everyone  who  was  missed  or  was 
behind  time  old  Tanner  had  slain.  The  youngsters  at  Sault  Ste.  Marie 
shivered  and  shuddered  throughout  the  entire  summer. 

During  the  Mexican  war,  Lieut.  Tilden,  who  had  been  stationed  at 
the  Sault  at  the  time  of  the  tragedy,  was  sent  to  the  front  with  his  regiment. 
He  became  involved  in  some  trouble  there  causing  him  to  be  court  martialed. 
During  the  trial  it  was  hinted  that  he  was  suspected  of  the  murder  of  James 
Schoolcraft,  which  was  likely  to  affect  the  verdict  of  the  court,  and  Lieut. 
Tilden  accordingly  Avrote  to  Rev.  Mr.  Bingham  asking  him  to  get  signers  to 
a  circular  among  the  citizens  exonerating  him  from  this  suspicion.  This 
was  the  first  that  Mr.  Bingham  had  heard  of  Tilden's  name  in  con- 
nection with  the  murder.  He  was  glad  to  help  Mr.  Tilden  and  asked 
citizens  to  sign  the  circular.  To  his  surprise  Judge  Samuel  Ashman, 
at  the  Sault,  refused  to  sign,  saying  that  he  was  not  satisfied  that  Tilden 
was  not  the  guilty  man  after  all.  To  Mr.  Bingham's  great  aston- 
ishment others  were  of  a  like  opinion,  and  upon  investigation  he  found 
that  James  Schoolcraft  and  Lieut.  Tilden  had  had  some  sort  of  dispute  not 
long  before  the  murder  and  that  Lieut.  Tilden  in  speaking  of  it  had  been 
heard  to  say  that  "cold  lead  would  settle  it."  Major  Kingsbury  knew  of 
this,  which  accounted  for  his  visible  excitement  when  the  news  of  the 
murder  reached  him.  No  steps  were  ever  taken  to  connect  Lieut.  Til- 
den with  the  tragedy,  however,  and  the  story  that  he  had  anything  to 
do  with  it  is  both  wild  and  improbable.  It  was  claimed  that  on  the  after- 
noon of  the  murder  two  soldiers  came  in  from  pretended  hunting  in  the 
woods  with  their  guns,  the  barrel  of  one  being  empty,  and  that  these  sol- 
diers had  been  hired  by  Lieut.  Tilden  to  shoot  James  Schoolcraft.  It  is 
not  probable,  however,  that  Tilden,  having  made  public  his  hostility  to 
Schoolcraft,  would  have  hired  two  men  instead  of  one  to  do  the  dreadful 
business.  It  is  probably  true,  however,  that  these  two  men  did  come  in 
from  the  woods  at  this  time  with  their  guns,  and  it  is  singular  that  about 
a  month  after  the  murder  w-hile  they  were  standing  with  a  group  of  sol- 
diers near  the  front  gate  of  the  fort,  there  suddenly  came  up  one  of  those 
lightning  strokes  and  thunder  claps  out  of  a  clear  sky,  accompanied  by  an 
almost  instant  downpour  of  rain,  and  immediately  after  the  explosion  it 
was  seen  that  the  two  soldiers  had  been  struck  and  killed  by  lightning, 
while  everyone  else  in  the  group  remained  unharmed.     Their  bodies  were 


SAULT   STE.   MARIE   BEFORE   THE    CANAL  107 

only  slightly  marked  and  Dr.  Byrne,  post  surgeon,  worked  over  them  for 
a  long  time,  but  without  avail.  They  were  borne  with  muffled  drums  to 
the  military  cemetery  and  buried  with  military  honors. 

The  records  of  the  War  Department  show  that  Lieut.  Tilden  resigned 
in  1848  and  died  ten  years  later.  While  Tanner  had  an  avowed  inten- 
tion and  a  given  motive  for  killing  James  Schoolcraft,  and  while  it  is 
known  that  he  disappeared  immediately  after  his  house  burned  down  (none 
of  his  bones  were  found  in  the  ruins)  yet  there  were  members  of  the  School- 
craft household  who  believed  that  it  was  Tilden  and  not  Tanner  that  killed 
Schoolcraft.  Martha  Tanner,  the  half-breed  daughter  of  John  Tanner, 
who  lived  to  a  great  age  at  Mackinac  Island,  deepened  the  mystery  of  the 
deed  by  maintaining  that  Tilden  had  upon  his  deathbed  confessed  to  the 
crime.* 

The  hauling  of  the  schooner  Uncle  Tom  over  the  rapids  on  June  10. 
1847,  with  Peter  White's  unsuccessful  attempt  to  secure  passage  on  the 
schooner  Merchant  bound  for  the  copper  country,  has  already  been  de- 
cribed.  It  would  be  well  if  there  could  be  introduced  a  more  extended  pen 
picture  of  the  social  life  of  this  little  settlement,  but  the  main  purpose  of  this 
story  is  to  relate  the  conditions  that  surrounded  the  early  development  of 
the  iron  fields.  But  there  were  characters  at  the  scene  both  lovely  and 
picturesque.  The  fame  of  La  Branche,  one  of  the  snowshoe  travelers, 
still  lives.  It  is  related  of  him  that  at  the  instigation  of  James  L.  School- 
craft he  made  a  special  trip  from  the  Sault  to  Mackinaw  and  return  within 
thirty  hours.  L^pon  his  return  he  remained  outside  of  the  Sault  on  Coalpit 
hill  over  two  hours  in  order  that  he  might  reach  Schoolcraft's  store  in  the 
fort  at  the  expiration  of  the  time  allowed.  He  feared  that  an  earlier  return 
might  deprive  him  of  the  extra  compensation  he  was  to  have.  La  Branche 
celebrated  his  success  by  dancing  the  greater  part  of  the  same  night. 

In  1849  the  cholera  made  its  appearance  at  Sault  Ste.  Marie,  the  first 
victim  being  Morris  W.  Stevens  of  the  St.  Mary's  hotel,  who  was  attacked 
on  Saturday  and  buried  the  following  day.  The  disease  became  epidemic 
and  spread  with  fearful  rapidity,  numerous  deaths  following,  so  much  so 
that  the  boat  which  was  to  leave  for  Detroit  at  2  P.  M.  the  following 
Wednesday  was  detained  for  two  hours  to  enable  the  passengers  to  bury 
their  dead  and  leave  for  their  homes  in  the  lower  peninsula.  Within  a  half 
hour  after  the  boat's   leaving  not  a  living  being  could  be  seen  upon  the 

*  Hanging  on  the  wall  in  the  library  of  Peter  White's  home  at  Marquette  to-day  is  a 
portrait  of  John  Tanner,  showing  a  striking  and  virile  face.  Peter  White  has  never  shared  in 
the  belief  of  Tilden's  connection  with  this  crime;  nor  does  he  regard  the  confession,  if  made, 
of  any  importance.  He  says  that  men  have  been  known  to  confess  to  crimes  which  they  did  not 
commit,  as   for  instance  by  brooding  long  upon  an  event  to  actually  imagine  that  they  committed  it. 


108  THE  HONORABLE  PETER  WHITE 

main  street  of  the  village ;  nor  was  there  a  guest  left  at  either  of  the  hotels. 
In  1852  congress  passed  the  act  granting  750,000  acres  of  land  to  the 
state  of  Michigan  to  aid  in  the  construction  of  the  canal,  and  in  1853 
Charles  T.  Harvey  broke  ground  for  the  improvement.  The  first  shaft  was 
dug  right  down  through  the  Indian  burying  ground  to  the  great  distress 
of  the  surviving  Indians,  to  whom  this  spot  had  been  reserved  forever  by 
treaty  of  the  government.  Shegud,  the  Chippewa  chief,  solemnly  protested 
against  this  desecration  and  urged  the  fulfillment  of  the  government's  prom- 
ise.* He  had  native  powers  of  eloquence  but  he  was  persuaded  that  his 
protest  would  be  in  vain. 

*  In  the  old  town  of  Sault  Ste.  Marie  there  is  a  burial  ground  probably  first  used  over  two 
centuries  ago  by  the  early  French  missionaries,  explorers  and  fur  traders.  It  was  directly  on 
the  banks  of  the  river  but  has  now  been  obliterated  for  nearly  a  century.  A  most  interesting 
relic  found  not  long  ago  in  an  excavation  there  is  a  little  crucifix,  made  in  France,  exquisitely 
wrought  in  iron  and  silver,  much  discolored,  but  otherwise  perfect,  buried  with  some  faithfal 
French  priest  of  the  Roman  Catholic  church.  How  quietly  the  sleepers  have  lain  there  on  the 
banks  of  the  river,  unmindful  of  the  changes  passing  by — summer  and  winter;  the  swift  flowing 
water  and  the  solid  ice;  the  wild  war  cries  of  the  savages  in  combat  and  the  planting  of  the 
cross  and  the  intoning  of  chants  of  the  Christian  church;  birch  canoes  flying  past  with  quick 
strokes  of  the  paddles,  accompanied  by  shouts  and  weird  songs;  bateaux  of  the  fur  traders 
from  Montreal  and  Quebec  with  their  voyageurs  keeping  time  to  their  strokes  with  quaint 
Canadian  boat  songs;  the  patient  gliding  of  sail  vessels  with  their  modest  freights;  the  little 
high  pressure  steamboat  puffing  its  way  up  with  great  importance  at  stated  periods;  the  larger 
steamers  in  occasional  trips  with  their  loads  of  tourists,  until  in  the  march  of  civilization  the 
birch  bark  canoe  with  its  paddle,  the  bateau  with  its  voyageurs,  have  given  place  and  yielded 
possession   to   giant    steamers    that    even   the   oceans    of   the   world   can   scarcely   rival. 


CHAPTER  XII. 


LAKE  SUPERIOR  SHIPPING  BEFORE  THE  CANAL. 

CO  enormous  has  the  shipping  of  Lake  Superior  grown  since  the  canal 
was  built  that  it  might  be  well  to  state  what  it  was  before  the  canal 
existed.  It  seems  probable  that  after  the  unfortunate  Griffin,*  which  it  is 
conceded  was  the  first  vessel  to  be  constructed  upon  the  Great  Lakes  of 
North  America,  sail  navigation  had  an  earlier  development  on  Lake  Superior 
than  on  Lake  Erie.  It  appears,  indeed,  that  a  Frenchman  named  La- 
ronde  built  a  bark  of  40  tons  above  the  St.  Mary's  Falls  about  1731,  the 
riggino:  and  other  material  beingr  sent  from  lower  Canada  in  canoes.  It  is 
stated  by  Capt.  Jonathan  Carver,  Avho  traversed  Lake  Superior  in  1766, 
that  "The  French,  while  in  possession  of  Canada  kept  a  small  schooner  on 
this  lake."     The  loss  of  this  vessel  is  reported  soon  after  the  conquest  of 

*  The  Griffin  was  built  by  Cavalier  de  la  Salle  in  May,  1679.  La  Salle  landed  at  the  mouth 
of  the  Niagara  river  on  the  spot  now  known  as  Fort  Niagara,  in  December,  1678.  He  secured 
from  the  Seneca  chieftain  permission  to  build  a  vessel  to  navigate  the  inland  waters.  The  site  of 
the    construction    of    the    Griffin    has    been    located    as    nearly    as    possible    on    the    farm    of    Jackson 

Angvine,  close  to  the 
Niagara  river.  The 
vessel  was  between 
45  and  60  tons  bur- 
den, both  figures 
being  given  by  vari- 
ous historians.  She 
was  fancifully  pic- 
tured as  a  schooner, 
but  the  schooner  rig 
was  not  introduced 
until  about  thirty 
years  after  the  Grif- 
fin was  launched.  The 
correct  rig  of  the 
Griffin  is  conveyed  in 
the  acompanying  line 
drawing  which  was 
discovered  by  Rich- 
ard P.  Joy,  of  De- 
troit, in  a  little  leath- 
er     covered      French 


THE   CORRECT   RIG   OF   THE   GRIFFIN. 


book    published    by    Father    Hennepin    in    1711.     It    is    probable    that    La    Salle    obtained    the    design 
tor  the  vessel   when   in    France,   and   that   her   rig   was  the   prevailing  rig   for  vessels   of   that   period. 


110  THE  HONORABLE  PETER  WHITE 

Canada  by  the  British.  The  discover}-  of  copper  led  to  the  building  of  a 
sloop  of  70  tons  above  the  St.  Mary's  Falls,  which  was  launched  in  1772. 
It  was  used  in  prosecuting  mining  enterprises  until  their  collapse  a  year 
or  two  later,  when  it  probably  passed  into  the  hands  of  the  fur  traders, 
who  from  this  time  monopolized  the  commerce  of  Lake  Superior  for  many 
years. 

The  early  history  of  the  commerce  of  Lake  Superior  cannot  be  under- 
stood without  reference  to  the  remarkable  commercial  organizations  which 
were  formed  mainly  for  trade  in  furs.  The  first  and  most  important  was 
the  Hudson  Bay  Co..  which  was  chartered  by  Charles  IL  in  1670,  under  the 
name  of  "The  Governor  and  Company  of  Adventures  of  England  Trading 
Into  Hudson  Bay."  It  had  exclusive  right  to  trade  in  and  govern  all  the 
territory  draining  into  Hudson  Bay.  For  more  than  a  century  it  exercised 
these  privileges  without  opposition  except  as  operations  brought  its  agents 
in  contact  with  the  French,  then  in  control  of  the  basin  of  the  Great  Lakes. 
Soon  after  this  territorv  passed  under  British  control  in  1763,  the  superior 
advantages  of  the  Lake  Superior  route  to  the  region  northwest  of  it  became 
manifest. 

In  1783,  the  year  when  the  independence  of  the  United  States  was  ac- 
knowledged by  treaty,  the  Northwest  Co.  was  organized  at  Mon- 
treal and  at  once  became  a  vigorous  competitor  of  the  other  company,  ex- 
tending its  operations  across  the  continent.  Its  success  stimulated  the  form- 
ation of  other  companies,  among  them  the  American  Fur  Co.  by  John 
Jacob  Astor.  The  interests  on  the  British  side  of  the  border  were  prac- 
tically unified  in  1821  by  the  amalgamation  of  the  Hudson  Bay  and  North- 
west companies  under  the  name  of  the  former. 

The  Northwest  Co.  employed  sailing  vessels  soon  after  it  Avas  or- 
ganized, and  before  the  end  of  the  eighteenth  century  had  at  least  one  on 
Lake  Erie  and  one  on  Lake  Huron.     At  the  beginning  of  the  war  of  1812 

On  her  main  mast  the  triangular  latteen  sail  was  used  then  universally,  and  on  her  fore  mast 
the  two  so'.'.are  sails,  also  common  on  vessels  of  the  time.  As  the  triangular  jig  or  staysail  did 
not  come  into  use  imtil  the  early  part  of  the  eighteenth  century,  it  is  probable  that  the  Gritfir 
carried  a  si)ritsail  on  her  high  bowsprit.  Even  as  late  as  the  year  1750  the  spritsail  was 
common   to  all   sea-going   vessels. 

The  Griffin  is  the  first  mystery  of  the  Great  Lakes.  She  sailed  out  of  the  Niagara  river 
on  August  7.  1679,  under  command  of  La  Salle.  The  vessel  was  navigated  by  an  old  salt 
water  seaman  who  acted  as  pilot,  and  in  four  days  the  Detroit  river  was  entered,  and  along 
its  banks  the  members  of  the  ship's  company  killed  bear,  deer  and  other  game.  The  Griffin 
reached  Mackinac  in  good  season.  After  a  short  stay  at  Mackinac  she  set  sail  for  Green 
Bay  and  took  on  a  cargo  of  fur  at  one  of  the  islands  there.  On  Sept.  18,  1679,  she  began 
her  return  voyage  to"  the  Niagara  river  in  charge  of  the  pilot.  La  Salle  and  his  company 
remained  behind  and  explored  the  Illinois  river.  This  was  the  last  seen  of  the  Griffin  and 
her  ship's  company.  She  was  never  heard  from  again  and  her  fate  remains  even  to  this  day 
enveloped    in    mystery. 


LAKE  SUPERIOR  SHIPPING   BEFORE   THE   CANAL  111 

the  companv  reported  to  the  Canadian  government  that  it  would  place  at 
the  disposal  of  the  government  on  Lake  Superior  a  vessel  of  120  tons, 
which  couUl  carry  six  or  eight  guns,  and  another  of  60  tons.  These  and 
three  others  were  captured  hy  the  Americans;  a  fourth,  cleverly  hid  in  an 
obscure  liarbor  on  Isle  Royale,  escaped  detection,  and  at  the  end  of  the  war 
was  run  down  the  St.  Mary's  rapids  for  service  on  Lake  Erie. 

The  year  after  the  war  closed  congress  passed  an  act  prohibiting  Brit- 
ish fur  traders  from  prosecuting  their  enterprises  within  the  territory  of 
the  L^nited  States.  This  gave  the  American  Fur  Co.  its  opportunity, 
and  before  many  years  had  elapsed  it  had  sailing  vessels  both  above  and 
below  St.  IMary's  rapids.  It  is  not  certain  that  the  British  companies 
again  placed  sailing  vessels  on  Lake  Superior. 

The  British,  however,  were  not  entirely  driven  from  the  lake.  They 
had  a  steamer  in  service  in  1822  and  1823  in  which  Lieut.  Bayfield  of  the 
Royal  Xa^•y  made  a  survey  of  the  lake.  This  schooner  was  probably  the 
Mink,  furnished  him  by  the  Hudson  Bay  Co.  Considering  the  time  con- 
sumed and  the  means  at  hand,  Bayfield's  work  was  wonderfully  well  done. 
The  shore  line  and  depths  of  water,  islands  and  sunken  rocks  were  rep- 
resented with  surprising  accuracy  and  detail,  and  Bayfiehhs  charts  remained 
standard  for  fifty  years. 

Previous  to  1829  the  fur  companies  had  in  their  employ  on  Lake  Su- 
perior the  following"  vessels :  Invincible,  Otter,  Mink,  Recovery  and  Dis- 
covery. They  were  schooners  varying  in  size  from  20  to  100  tons  bur- 
den and  were  all  built  on  Lake  Superior.  The  Invincible  was  wrecked 
on  White  Fish  Point  ab:)ut  the  year  1822.  The  Discovery  went  to  pieces 
in  running  the  rapids  at  the  Sault.  The  Mink  went  ashore  on  the  Canadian 
side  above  the  rapids  and  was  entombed  there.  The  Recovery  safely  run 
the  rapids  in  1829  and  was  purchased  by  Merwin  &  Giddings,  of  Cleveland, 
and  ended  her  days  on  Lake  Erie.    The  fate  of  the  Otter  is  unknown. 

During  the  six  years  that  followed  1829  the  only  vessels  that  navi- 
gated Lake  Superior  were  bateaux  and  birch  bark  canoes. 

In  1835  George  W.  Jones  built  above  the  Sault  a  schooner  of  113  tons 
and  named  her  John  Jacob  Astor.  She  made  her  first  voyage  in  August 
of  that  year  under  the  command  of  Charles  C.  Stanard,  who  upon  that 
selfsame  trip  (at  4  p.  m.,  August  26)  discovered  the  celebrated  rock  which 
bears  his  name.  He  continued  to  sail  the  Astor  mitil  the  end  of  the  sea- 
son of  1842.  The  next  year  his  brother.  Capt.  Ben  A.  Stanard,  succeeded 
him  in  command  and  he  was  on  her  when  she  was  wrecked  at  Copper 
Harbor,  Sept.  20.  1844. 


112 


THE  HONORABLE  PETER  WHITE 


The  schooner  Wilham  Brewster,  named  after  the  agent  of  the  Amer- 
ican Fur  Co.  at  Detroit,  was  built  for  that  company  above  the  rapids  in 
1838.  She  was  sailed  first  by  Capt.  John  Wood,  and  he  had  command  un- 
til the  fall  of  1841,  when  she  was  laid  up  at  La  Pointe.     In  1842  Capt.  Ben 


SilOWING    ALT,    THAT    IS    LEFT    UF    THE    ALGONQUIN    IN    THE    BULRUSHES    AT    DULUTH. 


Stanard  fitted  her  out  and  sent  her  to  Detroit,  thus  ending  her  Lake  Su- 
perior career. 

The  schooner  Algoncjuin,  50  tons  burden,  built  at  Cleveland  by  Rich- 
ardson &  Mendenhall,  was  hauled  over  the  portage  at  Sault  Ste.  Marie  in 


LAKE  SUPERIOR   SHIPPING   BEFORE   THE   CANAL  113 

1839  and  made  her  first  trip  on  Lake  Snperior  in  1840.  She  was  the  first 
vessel  to  be  hauled  over  the  portage  into  Lake  Superior,  and  was  success- 
ively commanded  by  Captains  Rockwood,  Goldsmith,  Smithwich  and  Mc- 
Kay. It  was  this  vessel  under  command  of  Capt.  McKay  which  made  the 
rescue  of  Angelique  on  Isle  Royale  in  the  spring  of  1846,  as  is  elsewhere  re- 
lated in  this  history.  It  was  the  Algonquin  which  carried  John  Hays  to  the 
scene  of  his  wonderful  discoveries  of  copper,  and  for  a  considerable 
period  of  time  she  was  the  only  thing  bigger  than  the  bateaux  on  Lake 
Superior  and  after  the  loss  of  the  John  Jacob  Astor  practically  handled  alone 
the  serious  commerce  of  this  mighty  lake  for  a  year.  The  Algonquin  in- 
deed had  a  long  and  honorable  career  and  her  hull  is  resting  even  to  this 
day  in  the  bulrushes  near  Duluth,  where  she  sunk  in  1856.  There  was  some 
talk  during  the  World's  Fair  of  1893  of  resurrecting  the  Algonquin  and 
sending  her  to  the  exposition  as  an  exhibit  of  what  was  once  the  most  splen- 
did craft  on  Lake  Superior,  but  the  project  was  abandoned.  It  would  indeed 
have  been  a  striking  object  lesson. 

The  schooner  Madeline,  belonging  to  the  American  Fur  Co.,  20  tons 
burden,  w'as  built  at  La  Pointe  in  1839.  She  was  sailed  by  Capt.  John 
Angus  and  was  wrecked  at  Isle  Royale  the  same  year. 

The  schooner  Siscowit  was  later  built  by  the  American  Fur  Co.  and 
sailed  by  Capt.  Angus.  Subsequently  she  was  owned  by  Capt.  Bendry 
of  L'Anse,  later  of  Baraga.  The  manner  of  her  death  has  been  told  in  the 
chapter  devoted  to  the  early  discovery  of  iron  in  the  Marquette  district. 

This  practically  embraced  the  list  of  vessels  on  Lake  Superior  until 
1845,  when  the  growing  commerce  made  it  necessary  to  increase  the  ton- 
nage. It  was  found  more  convenient  to  haul  the  vessels  over  the  portage 
than  to  actually  build  them  on  Lake  Superior. 

In  1845  the  following  vessels  were  taken  over  the  portage  into  Lake 
Superior:  Schooner  Ocean,  15  tons;  schooner  Fur  Trader;  schooner  Chip- 
pewa, 20  tons,  Capt.  Thomas  Clark,  master  and  owner ;  schooner  Florence, 
20  tons,  owned  by  Antrim  &  Keith,  taken  over  on  the  Canadian  side  and 
sailed  by  Capt.  David  Keith.  Then  followed  the  schooner  Swallow  of  80 
tons'  burden,  which  was  sailed  by  Capt.  Smithwich  and  which  finally  be- 
came the  property  of  Capt.  James  Bendry,  of  L'Anse,  later  of  Baraga. 
Bendry  later  concluded  that  she  was  too  large  for  the  traffic  of  Lake  Su- 
perior and  sent  her  to  the  lower  lakes. 

The  schooner  ^Merchant  was  hauled  over  in  1845  and  was  sailed  in 
1846  by  Capt.  Brown.  She  was  wrecked  and  sunk  with  all  on  board  off 
Grand  Island  in  1847.     It  has  already  been  stated  that  the  subject  of  this 


114  THE  HONORABLE  PETER  WHITE 

sketch  vainlv  endeavored  to  take  passage  on  t'le  Merchant  for  Copper 
Harbor  on  this  trip  but  was  refused  because  she  was  already  overloaded 
with  passengers. 

The  first  steamer  ever  to  sail  the  waters  of  Lake  Superior  was  the 
propeller  Independence,  of  about  280  tons  burden,  which  was  put  over 
the  portage  in  1845. "•'     Capt.  A.  J.  Averill  was  her  master  and  part  ow-ner. 

*  The  first  trip  of  the  Independence  on  Lake  Superior,  as  well  as  the  conditions  obtain- 
ing at  that  time,  are  well  told  by  Mr.  Lewis  Marvill,  of  Parksville,  St.  Joseph  county,  Michigan, 
who    was    a    member    of    the   crew    of   the    Independence.      He    states: 

"My  memory  carries  me  back  to  the  spring  of  1845,  or  more  than  one-half  of  a  century, 
and  I  have  a  vivid  recollection  of  standing  on  Dorr  &  Webb's  dock,  in  Detroit,  early  in  the 
spring  vi'atching  the  process  of  transforming  a  little  tub  of  a  sloop  of  about  15  tons,  into  a 
fore-and-after,  called  the  Ocean.  My  funds  being  rather  low  I  decided  to  ship  if  I  could,  and 
ship  I  did.  We  took  in  a  cargo  of  fish  for  Sandusky  and  Milan,  O.,  and  in  due  time  sailed 
for  these  ports,  and  returned  without  any  mishaps.  We  then  received  orders  to  fit  up  for  Lake 
Superior,  which  we  accordingly  did,  but  being  slightly  indisposed  when  w-e  got  ready,  I  could 
not  proceed  with  the  vessel,  which  sailed  without  me.  Some  time  in  June,  the  same  firm  that 
owned  the  Ocean  bought  and  fitted  up  the  topsail  schooner  Merchant  of  about  75  tons,  Capt. 
John  W^atson,  for  the  same  trade,  i.  e..  Lake  Superior,  and  I  being  determined  to  visit  that 
famous  lake,  shipped  on  her,  with  the  understanding  that  I  might  join  my  own  ship  (the  Ocean) 
at  the  Sault  if  I  felt  so  disposed.  In  due  time  we  took  on  board  all  the  necessary  materials 
for  taking  both  vessels,  the  Ocean  and  the  Merchant,  over  the  rapids  and  reached  the  Sault, 
where  we  found  the  Ocean  waiting  for  us.  We  fell  to  and  worked  her  over  in  short  meter, 
and  then  tackled  the  larger  one,  the  jMerchant.  They  were  taken  over  on  rollers,  the  same 
as  buildings  are  sometimes  3iioved.  When  we  had  her  about  half  way  across,  word  came  that 
a  steamer  had  just  arrived  from  Chicago,  with  all  the  rigging  on  board,  to  be  taken  over  the 
rapids.  A  few  days  after  a  misunderstanding  arose  among  the  crew  of  the  Merchant,  and  a 
part  of  them  quit  and  left  her.  Hearing  that  they  were  in  want  of  a  porter  on  board  the 
newly  arrived  steamer  Independence,  then  lying  at  McKnight's  dock  getting  ready  to  be  hauled 
over,    I    applied    and    got   berth    of   porter    and    immediately    began    my    duties    as    such. 

"Everything  being  in  readiness  the  ship  was  hauled  out  of  the  water  and  began  its  transit 
across  the  neck  of  land  forming  the  rapids.  No  mishaps  occurring  the  progress  of  hauling 
progressed  slowly  but  surely,  and  in  about  seven  weeks  we  were  again  launched  in  the  river  at 
the  head  of  the  falls.  In  the  meantime  the  schooner  Napoleon  of  about  150  tons  was  being 
put  together  (her  whole  works  having  been  got  out  and  shipped  there  already)  and  she  was 
launched  a  short  time  before  the  Independence,  and  so  was  the  Merchant,  she  having  stuck  in 
the  process  of  launching,  which  caused  considerable  delay.  I!y  this  time  it  had  got  to  be  quite 
late  in  the  fall  and  it  began  to  be  feared  that  we  would  not  be  able  to  make  the  trip  before  we 
were  frozen  in.  But  we  finally  got  away  with  a  crew  of  fourteen  men  and  steamed  up  the  lake. 
The  first  place  we  touched  at  was  Copper  Harbor,  or  Fort  Wilkin'^  (no  such  place  as  Marquette 
then  being  thought  of),  where  we  found  a  small  garrison  and  two  or  three  log  huts.  The  next 
in  order  was  «Eagle  Harbor,  where  there  were  a  few  prospectors,  and  then  on  to  Eagle  river, 
where  we  discharged  most  of  our  cargo,  but  before  we  could  throw  off  some  fifty  kegs  of 
powder  the  wind  raised  from  the  northwest  and  kicked  up  such  a  sea  that  we  had  to  weigh 
anchor  and  leave.  We  shaped  our  course  for  La  Pointe,  but  made  very  poor  headway,  the  wind 
being  almost  ahead.  Vve,  however,  persevered  till  we  got  within  sight  of  the  Apostle  Islands, 
when  the  wind  freshened  into  a  gale  and  we  had  to  turn  about  and  run  before  it  and  make 
for  the  lee  of  Keweenaw  point,  the  nearest  harbor  that  wc  dare  enter  with  safety.  In  the 
meantime  the  sea  got  running  so  high  that  it  tossed  our  little  steamer  like  a  shell  and  rolled 
so  heavy  that  the  stoves  broke  loose  from  their  moorings  and  lunitiled  all  over  the  floor.  When 
it  is  remembered  that  it  was  not  generally  known  among  passengers  and  crew  that  we  had  fifty 
kegs  of  powder  aboard  it  made  rather  lively  work  for  us  straightening  things  up.  We  suc- 
ceeded in  reaching  our  objective  iioint  of  safety,  where  wc  cast  anchor  and  laid  by  three  O! 
four    days    waiting    for    weather,    rcjairing    and    laying    up    a    stock    of    wood    which    we    had    to    chop 


LAKE  SUPERIOR  SHIPPING  BEFORE   THE   CANAL  115 

• 

She  made  a  trip  to  Eagle  river  and  La  I^)inte  that  faU  and  then  returned 
to  the  Sault,  where  she  laid  up  for  the  wintsr.  The  Independence  was  huilt 
in  1843  by  ]\Ir.  Averill,  father  of  A.  J.  Averill,  on  the  north  side  of  the 
Chicago  river,  where  Kirk's  soap  factory  now  stands.  She  was  schooner- 
rigged,  foresail,  mainsail  and  jibs,  with  two  rotary  engines  to  propel  her, 
which  in  a  dead  calm  would  drive  her  about  four  miles  an  hour.  Her 
career  was  full  of  vicissitudes  and  was  brought  to  an  abrupt  end  in  1853' 
by  the  bursting  of  her  boiler  about  a  mile  above  the  rapids.  Capt.  John 
McKay  was  master  of  her  at  the  time  and  Jonas  W.  Watson  was  clerk. 

The  schooner  Napoleon  was  built  at  the  Sault  in  the  summer  of  1845. 
She  was  sailed  by  Capt.  John  Stewart.  In  the  winter  of  1848-1849  she 
was  overhauled  and  changed  into  a  propeller.  This  vessel  had  a  most  un- 
enviable reputation  for  heavy  rolling.  Her  curve  of  stability  seems  to  have 
been  most  extraordinary.  One  passenger  in  describing  his  experience  on 
her  declared  that  she  picked  up  fish  with  her  smokestack.  After  the  canal 
w^as  completed  she  ended  her  days  doing  lighterage  work  on  the  St.  Clair 
river  helping  vessels  over  the  shoals. 

The  schooner  Uncle  Tom  was  put  over  the  portage  in  1847. 

The  first  sidewheel  steamer  to  sail  Lake  Superior  was  the  Julia  Pal- 
mer, belonging  to  Capt.  W.  F.  P.  Taylor,  which  was  hauled  over  the 
portage  in  1846.  Her  career  lasted  only  one  season.  On  the  last  trip 
she  ever  made  she  was  out  of  sight  of  land  for  fourteen  days  and  a  most 
perilous  time  was  had  by  those  on  board.  Upon  her  return  to  Sault  Ste. 
Marie  her  machinery  was  taken  out  of  her  and  she  was  towed  to  Wiaskia 
Bay  and  used  as  a  wood  dock. 

The  schooner  George  W.  Ford  was  hauled  over  in  1850. 

When  the  propeller  Manhattan  was  taken  over  the  portage  in  1850, 
Lake  Superior  was  blessed  with  a  staunch  and  excellent  vessel.  She  be- 
longed to  Spaulding  &  Bacon  and  w^as  fast  and  safe.  In  June,  1851.  the 
propeller  Monticello  was  taken  over  the  portage  bv  Sheldon  McKnight,  to 

and  take  off  in  our  yawl,  rather  slow  but  sure  work.  \A'e  again  set  sail,  and  this  time  having 
favorable  weather  we  succeeded  in  reaching  Eagle  river,  where  we  bid  good-bye  to  our  danger- 
ous cargo  (powder),  and  where  some  of  us  strolled  up  the  Cliff  mine  and  there  saw  the  first 
stamp  mill  (rather  a  primitive  one)  in  operation  in  that  now  famous  region.  Returning  on 
board  we  again  steamed  up  the  lake  to  La  Pointe.  our  final  destination  fno  such  jilace  as  On- 
tonagon then  being  thought  of),  which  we  reached  in  safety,  and  gave  the  natives  a  dreadful 
scare    with    the   appearance    of   our    craft    and    the    noise    of    our    steam    whistle. 

"Our  trip  up  the  lake  now  being  accomplished,  we  started  on  our  return  to  the  Sault,  which 
we  reached  in  safety.  The  season  being  now  far  advanced,  we  immediately  proceeded  to  dis- 
mantle the  steamer  and  laid  her  up  for  the  winter,  in  company  with  the  following  named  crafts, 
which  then  constituted  the  available  fleet  of  the  greatest  of  the  Great  Lakes:  The  Ocean,  about 
15  tons;  Chippewa,  about  20  tons;  Algonquin,  about  30  tons;  Swallow,  about  40  tons;  Merchant, 
about  75  tons;  Napoleon,  about  150  tons,  and  the  Independence,  about  365  tons,  the  first  steamer 
that  ever  ploughed  Lake  Superior.  Thus  ended  the  memorable  first  day  trip  by  steam  to  the 
mining  regions.  We  found  below  the  falls  the  steamer  Baltimore,  which  was  hauled  over  either 
in    the    winter    or    early    spring.      The    Napoleon    was    fitted    up    the    next    summer    with    engines.  ' 


116  THE  HONORABLE  PETER  WHITE 

compete  with  the  Manhattan.  A  war  of  rates  was  pursued  and  the  feel- 
ing between  the  two  hues  was  very  bitter ;  but  the  Monticello  had  scarcely 
been  on  the  lake  three  months  when  a  collision  occurred  between  her  and  the 
Manhattan.  This  has  never  been  satisfactorily  explained,  though  it  was 
the  general  opinion  at  the  time  that  it  could  have  been  avoided.  The  Man- 
hattan was  cut  down  and  sunk  near  Parisian  Island.  The  Monticello 
stood  by  and  cared  for  all  of  her  passengers  so  that  no  lives  were  lost 
by  this  desperate  proceeding.  Mrs.  A.  R.  Harlow,  of  Marquette,  who  has 
the  honor  of  being  the  first  white  woman  resident  of  Marquette,  was  a 
passenger  on  the  A-Ianhattan  at  the  time.  The  Manhattan  was  resurrected 
and  again  placed  in  commission  in  six  weeks.  Upon  her  reappearance  at 
Marquette  a  deputation  of  young  ladies  all  dressed  in  white  and  carrying 
bouquets,  marched  down  to  the  Cleveland  dock  and  presented  Capt.  Cald- 
well, the  blunt,  scarred  and  weather-beaten  master  of  the  vessel,  with  the 
American  flag,  while  a  high-flown  old  gentleman,  Dr.  Livermore,  mounted 
a  cast  iron  cylinder  which  stood  on  the  dock  and  read  a  series  of  reso- 
lutions eulogizing  the  Manhattan  and  ending  with  the  prophecy  that  Mar- 
quette was  destined  to  be  the  greatest  place  in  the  world.  Two  of  the  reso- 
lutions read  as  follows : 

"Resolzed,  That  in  our  opinion  Marquette  has  become  a  place  of  busi- 
ness and  resort  sufficient  to  warrant  its  being  made  a  stopping  place  by 
all  boats  on  their  upward  as  well  as  downward  trips  and,  that  the  time 
is  not  far  distant  when  the  commercial  business  growing  out  of  these 
rich  and  inexhaustible  mountains  of  iron  will  alone  require  more  ship- 
ping than  at  this  time  floats  upon  this  lake. 

"Resolved,  That  in  our  estimation  those  iron  companies  who  have 
been  the  pioneers  of  operations  here,  and  who  have  had  incredible  and 
unforeseen  difficulties,  disappointments  and  misfortunes  to  grapple  with  are 
deservinp-  of  a  favoring-  and  fosterino-  consideration,  and  it  is  a  source  of 
much  gratification  that  the  smoke  of  their  fires  and  the  clink  of  their 
hammers  give  indications  that  days  and  years  of  prosperity  are  in  store 
for  them." 

The  two  iron  companies  which  he  referred  to  were  the  Marquette  Iron 
Co.  and  the  original  Jackson  Iron  Co.,  both  of  which  failed  later. 

A  few  weeks  later  the  Monticello  after  coming  out  of  Ontonagan  was 
discovered  to  be  taking  water  rapidly.  Both  sea  and  wind  were  very  high 
and  she  made  lier  way  slowly.  Finally  her  fires  were  put  out  by  the 
water  rising-  to  the  furnaces  and  she  went  on  the  rockv  shore  about  twenty 
miles  above  Eagle  river  and  pounded  to  pieces.     Shp  had  undoubtedly  been 


LAKE  SUPERIOR   SHIPPING   BEFORE   THE    CANAL  117 

cracked  from  stem  to  stern  in  the  collision,  but  during  her  brief  life  she 
was  undoubtedly  the  star  vessel  on  Lake  Superior.  The  Manhattan  was 
wrecked  in  trying  to  enter  Grand  Marais  harbor  in  1858. 

The  hauling  of  vessels  over  the  portage  continued,  the  fine  sidewheel 
steamer  Baltimore  being  hauled  over  by  the  McKnight  line  in  1852.  She 
was  commanded  first  by  Capt.  Jack  Wilson,  then  by  Capt.  Redmund  Ryder, 
Capt.  John  Shooks,  and  finally  by  Capt.  John  Reed. 

The  propeller  Peninsula  was  put  over  the  portage  by  the  McKnight 
line  in  1853.  She  was  commanded  by  Capt.  John  Reed,  and  was  wrecked 
the  same  year  at  Eagle  river.  She  did  not  carr}^  passengers  to  any  extent 
but   was   a   large   freight   carrier. 

Capt.  Eber  Ward  also  hauled  the  sidewheel  steamer  Sam  Ward  over 
the  portage  in  1853.  The  Sam  Ward  was  the  last  vessel  to  be  launched 
in  this  manner  on  Lake  Superior,  as  actual  work  on  the  canal  had  now  been 
begun. 


CHAPTER  XIII. 


CONSTRUCTION  OF  THE  SAULT  STE.   MARIE  CANAL. 


jWI  ICHIGAN  was  admitted  into  the  union  as  a  state  in  1836,  and  Gov.  Ma- 
son  in   his   first   message   to   the   legislature,   convened   in    1837,    ad- 
vocated the  building  of  a  canal  by  the  state  of  Michigan.     This  is  the  first 
action  on  record  regarding  the  construction  of  the  canal  on  the  American 

side  of  the  rapids.  On  March  21, 
1837,  the  legislature  of  Michigan 
passed  an  act  authorizing  a  survey  for 
the  canal  and  appropriating  $25,000 
for  the  work.  This  original  survey,, 
made  under  the  direction  of  John 
Almy,  recommended  a  canal  75  feet 
wide  and  10  feet  deep,  with  two  locks 
each  100  feet  long,  32  feet  wide  and  10- 
feet  deep,  the  total  cost  to  be  $112,544. 
On  Sept.  7,  1838,  the  state  of  Michi- 
gan entered  into  contract  for  the  con- 
struction of  the  canal  with  Messrs. 
Smith  &  Driggs  of  Buffalo.  Work 
was  not  begun  until  May,  1839.  The 
route  of  the  canal  traversed  the  U.  S. 
military  reservation,  and  as  the  fed- 
eral authorities  had  not  approved  of 
the  undertaking,  the  officer  in  com- 
mand, acting  under  orders  from. 
Washington,  marched  a  detachment  of  soldiers  to  the  scene  of  operations 
and  forcibly  ejected  the  contractors,  who  had 'begun  their  work  by  filling 
up  a  government  mill  race  on  the  military  reservation.  Thus  ended  the  first- 
attempt  at  canal  making. 

Michigan,  however,  did  not  drop  the  matter.     On  March  27,   1840,  the 


JOHN     BURT. 


CONSTRUCTION    OF   THE   SAULT    STE.    MARIE    CANAL 


119 


Michigan  legislature  passed  a  joint  resolution  protesting  against  federal 
interference  with  the  work.  Three  days  later  a  memorial  on  the  subject 
was  presented  to  congress.  A  bill  was  also  introduced  in  congress  to 
grant  100,000  acres  of  land  to  aid  in  the  construction  of  the  canal. 

It  is  interesting  to  observe  that  the  passage  of  the  measure  was  ad- 
vocated mainly  on  the  ground  that  it  would  "stimulate  the  fisheries  of  Lake 
Superior,"  estimated  to  be  worth  $1,000,000  per  annum.  It  was  incidentally 
added:  "In  the  country  bordering  the  southern  shore  of  Lake  Superior 
copper  and  other  minerals  are  Ijelieved  to  exist  in  abundance."  The  bill, 
however,  was  not  passed.  In  1843  ^  further  attempt  was  made,  but  the 
great  Henry  Clay  opposed  it  on  the  ground,  to  use  his  own  words,  "that  it 


ORIGIN.\L   UPPER    LOCK    OK    1 855. 


contemplated  a  work  beyond  the  remotest  settlement  in  the  L^nited  States, 
if  not  in  the  moon." 

Thus  the  matter  rested  until  the  meeting  of  the  legislature  in  1843.  On 
January  24  a  joint  resolution  passed  that  body  asking  congress  for  an  appro- 
priation for  the  construction  of  the  canal.  Copies  of  this  action  were  sent 
to  the  legislatures  of  New  York,  Pennsylvania,  Ohio,  Illinois  and  Wisconsin, 
soliciting  their  co-operation.  Similar  appeals  followed  in  1844,  1848  and 
1849,  proving  that  ten  years  of  futile  effort  had  not  discouraged  the  pioneers. 
In  1849  John  Ingersoll,  representative  of  the  legislature  from  Chippewa 
County,  and  Jonathan  P.  King,  from  Mackinaw,  took  hold  of  the  matter 
again  and  secured  the  passage  of  a  joint  resolution  by  the  legislature,  asking 


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CONSTRUCTION   OF  THE   SAULT   STE.   MARIE   CANAL 


121 


congress  to  appropriate  $500,000  in  money  for  the  construction  of  the  canal. 
Congress,  however,  took  no  action. 

In  1851  John  Bacon,  of  Chippewa  County,  and  E.  J.  Roberts,  of  Hough- 
ton County,  secured  the  passage  through  the  legislature  of  a  similar  resolu- 
tion calling  upon  the  general  government  for  $500,000.  Meanwhile  Judge 
William  A.  Burt  and  his  son  John  Burt  were  working  loyally  in  Washington 
to  interest  congress  in  the  enterprise.  They  supplied  Senator  Felch  with  all 
material  facts  relating  to  the  great  natural  resources  of  the  region  in  iron 


PROFILE 
Top  of  Tow  Path  5  Feet  above  Water 


Water  Sxirfacc.lake  Superior 


Level  ofXake  Superior  \ 


__^.„^T  6  0  4  3 


2   1  23  22     21 


20       19      16      17       16       15      U     13        12       11       10   1|a        «        1    t 


*^  ■~2jst.'^-ttLli£e  w;ater  Surface  Leiow  the  TUipicU 


Horizontal  Scale  of  Feet 


■Vertical  Scale  of  Feet 


0   100     500 


1000      10  5  0   10   20   30   40   50 


FIRST    MAP   OF   PROPOSED   CANAL   AND   LOCKS    AT    SAULT    STE.    MARIE.      PREPARED    BY 
CAPT.    CANFIELD   AND   JUDGE   BURT    IN    1852. 

and  copper  and  did  much  to  convince  congress  that  the  construction  of 
the  canal  was  not  the  dream  of  a  few  enthusiasts,  but  a  great  commercial 
necessity.  Through  the  indefatigable  energy  of  John  Burt  all  the  powerful 
men  in  the  peninsula,  including  Abner  Sherman,  Heman  B.  Ely,  Peter  White, 
Samuel  W.  Hill,  J.  Vernon  Brown,  Samuel  Ashmun  and  P.  P.  Barbeau, 
lent  their  efforts  to  the  furtherance  of  this  project.  Committees  from  the 
peninsula  spent  the  winter  of  1851-52  in  Washington  presenting  indisputable 
evidence  to  congress  that  the  canal  was  needed  as  a  great  artery  of  trans- 
portation. As  a  result  of  this  effort  congress  passed  an  act  on  August  21, 
1852,  granting  750,000  acres  of  land  of  the  state  of  Michigan  to  aid  in 
building  the  canal.  Congress  required  that  the  canal  should  be  at  least 
100  ft.  wide  and  12  ft.  deep,  with  locks  at  least  250  ft.  long  and  60  ft.  wide, 
allowing  three  years  for  beginning  the  work  and  ten  years  for  its  com- 
pletion. 


122  THE  HONORABLE  PETER  WHITE 

Thus  after  fifteen  years  of  almost  constant  effort  governmental  aid  was 
secured,  but  in  such  questionable  shape  that  even  the  promotors  felt  far  from 
satisfied.  There  was  no  assurance  that  any  company  could  be  prevailed 
upon  to  build  the  canal  for  the  land  grant.  Mr.  Vernon  Brown  returned 
to  the  Sault  and  published  a  very  discouraging  article  regarding  the  pros- 
pects.   In  fact  about  the  only  person  that  had  any  faith  was  John  Burt. 

Immediately  upon  the  passage  of  the  act  by  congress,  Governor  McClel- 
land, of  Michigan,  requested  the  secretary  of  war  to  make  an  immediate 
survey  of  the  proposed  canal.  For  the  want  of  a  specific  appropriation  for 
this  purpose  the  request  was  not  complied  with.  The  governor  then  se- 
cured the  services  of  Captain  Canfield,  United  States  topographical  engineer, 
to  make  the  survey.  It  was  necessary  that  this  should  be  done  at  once 
in  order  that  the  matter  might  be  laid  before  the  legislature,  which  con- 
vened the  coming  winter,  otherwise  a  delay  of  two  years  would  ensue. 
To  be  assured  of  prompt  action  by  the  legislature,  John  Burt  with  the  aid  of 
his  friends  secured  the  nomination  of  his  father  as  a  candidate  for  the  legis- 
lature from  Macomb  County  and  also  prevailed  upon  Heman  B.  Ely  to 
secure  the  nomination  in  Chippewa  County.  Judge  Wm.  A.  Burt  imme- 
diately joined  Captain  Canfield  and  together  they  made  a  survey  of  the 
route  and  prepared  plans,  profile  and  estimates  of  the  cost  of  the  canal, 
which  were  submitted  to  the  legislature.  This  map  is  reproduced  herewith 
showing  locks  300  ft.  in  length  and  60  ft.  in  width  with  a  lift  of  10  ft. 
This  survey  was  incorporated  by  Governor  McClelland  in  his  message 
to  the  legislature.  While  congress  had  provided  for  locks  250  ft.  long,  the 
plans  proposed  locks  300  ft.  long  at  the  urgent  request  of  leading  inter- 
ests in  the  Lake  Superior  region.  John  Burt,  however,  was  quite  insistent 
in  urging  that  the  locks  be  350  ft.  long  and  70  ft.  wide.  At  one  time  it  ap^ 
peared  as  though  the  whole  project  would  fall  through  owing  to  the  great 
diversity  of  plans. 

In  this  connection  it  is  interesting  to  publish  the  following  letter 
from  Eber  B.  Ward,  then  the  largest  individual  vessel  owner  on  the  lakes, 
and  the  foremost  man  of  his  time  in  the  lake  region,  protesting  against  the 
increase  in  the  size  of  the  locks  to  350  ft.  on  the  ground  that  the  narrow, 
shallow  and  rocky  channels  in  the  St.  Mary's  river  would  forever  deter  the 
largest  class  of  steamers  from  navigating  these  waters.    A  fac-simile  of  the 

letter  is  also  printed. 

"Detroit,  Jan.  29,  1853. 
"Hon.  Wm.  A.  Burt. 

"Dear  Sir : — The  deep  anxiety  I  feel  in  common  with  the  rest  of  the 
community  for  the  early  completion  of  the  Sault  Ste.  Marie  canal  induces 
me  to  write  to  you  on  the  subject. 


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124  THE  HONORABLE  PETER  WHITE 

"I  fear  the  defeat  of  our  long  cherished  hopes. 

"The  legislature  in  their  anxiety  to  prevent  undue  speculation  by  those 
who  would  be  disposed  to  contract  to  do  the  work  are  in  great  danger 
of  going  to  the  opposite  extreme,  and  make  such  requirements  as  will 
deter  competent  men  from  taking  the  contract  for  the  land.  The  size 
proposed  by  the  senate  bill,  350  by  70  foot  locks,  is  entirely  too  large  for 
the  locks.  The-  crooked,  narrow,  shallow  and  rocky  channels  in  the  St. 
Mary's  river  will  forever  deter  the  largest  class  of  steamers  from  navi- 
gating these  waters.  Aside  from  the  impediments  in  the  two  lakes  George, 
there  are  several  places  where  the  channel  is  very  narrow,  with  but  11  feet 
of  water  clear  of  rocks,  and  the  channels  too  crooked  for  the  large  class 
of  steamers  to  pass  in  safety. 

"This  I  regard  as  a  conclusive  argument  against  making  the  locks 
so  large  as  is  contemplated. 

"I  do  not  believe  there  is  the  least  necessity  for  making  the  locks  over 
260  feet  in  the  clear  and  60  feet  wide,  as  no  vessels  of  larger  dimensions 
than  could  pass  such  locks  can  be  used  there  with  safety  without  an  expen- 
diture of  a  very  large  sum  of  money  in  excavating  rock  at  various  points 
alonp-  the  river,  a  work  that  is  not  likelv  to  be  undertaken  during  the 
present  century. 

"The  value  of  wild  lands  may  be  estimated  bv  ascertaining  the  amount 
actually  realized  by  the  state  for  the  large  grants  that  have  heretofore  been 
made  for  purposes  of  improvement  when  no  taxes  were  collected  until 
lands  were  sold  to  settlers.  I  think  it  will  be  difficult  to  find  the  value  of 
25  cents  per  acre  for  all  such  grants  made  to  this  state.  A  well  organized 
company  might  make  the  lands  worth  75  cents  per  acre,  provided  they  were 
not  taxed  while  held  by  the  company.  I  have  no  doubt  the  smallest  sized 
canal  required  by  the  act  making  the  grant  of  land  would  cost  $525,000  or 
70  cents  per  acre.  Add  eight  cents  per  acre  for  interest  during  the  con- 
struction of  the  work  and  15  cents  per  acre  for  selection  and  location, 
brings  it  to  93  cents  per  acre,  a  price  at  which  any  quantity  can  now  be 
located  without  any  risk  of  loss  and  with  much  greater  chances  of  making 
desirable  selections.  If  the  legislature  will  appoint  a  committee  who  shall 
act  with  the  governor  to  make  the  best  contract  for  the  state  they  can, 
holding  them  responsible  for  a  faithful  discharge  of  their  duties,  I  feel  con- 
fident we  shall  succeed  in  securing  the  great  object  of  our  wishes.  But  if 
the  bill  should  materially  restrict  the  governor  in  his  powers  I  think  we 
have  good  reason  to  fear  that  the  inost  vital  interests  of  the  state  will  be 
delayed  for  years  to  come. 

"Hoping  for  a  favorable  issue  to  this  absorbing  question,  I  remain, 

"Truly  yours, 

"E.  B.  Ward." 


CONSTRUCTION   OF  THE  SAULT  STE.   MARIE   CANAL  12: 


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126 


Tin-:  HONORABLE  PETllR   Wlil'J'F, 


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CONSTRUCTION   OF  THE  SAULT  STE.   MARIE   CANAL  12/ 


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128 


THE  HONORABLE  PETER  WHITE 


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The  arsfument  in  this  letter  from  a 
business  standpoint  was  a  good  one 
nevertheless  because  an  amount  of 
land  equal  to  that  granted  by  con- 
gress could  have  been  purchased  at 
the  regular  rate  for  less  money ;  but  it 
should  be  remembered  that  the  ship 
canal  company  had  the  valuable  privi- 
lege of  selecting  lands  not  yet  thrown 
upon  the  market,  which  privilege 
thev  were  to  exercise  later  with  the  great- 
est wisdom  and  great  good  fortune. 

The  act  was  finally  passed  on  Feb- 
ruarv  5,  1853,  and  the  governor  was 
authorized  to  appoint  commissioners  to 
contract  for  the  construction  of  the 
canal.  The  governor  appointed  Chaun- 
cev  Joslin,  Henry  Ledyard.  John  P. 
Barry,  Shubael  Conant  and  Alfred  ^^^il- 
liamson  as  commissioners. 
Nothing  more  was  now  necessary  than  to  secure  the  construction  of  the 
canal  for  the  compensation  that  the  state  had  to  offer.  During  the  preced- 
ing summer  there  had  been  at  the  Baptist  mission  at  the  Sault  a  young 
man  named  Charles  T.  Harvey,  recuperating  from  the  wasting  effects  of  a 
severe  attack  of  typhoid  fever.  He  was  in  the  employ  of  Messrs.  E.  &  T. 
Fairbanks  &  Co.,   scale   manufacturers   of   St.   Johnsbury,   W.,   as   general 


CAPT.   EBER   B.    WARD. 


COXSTRUCTIOX   OF  THE  SAULT   STE.   MARIE  CANAL  129 

western  agent  in  charge  o£  the  estabhshing  agencies  for  their  weighing 
machines  in  the  large  western  cities.  He  had  been  sent  to  the  SauU  bv 
his  employers  primarily  for  his  health,  but  incidentally  to  inquire  into  the 
mining  resources  of  the  region  as  his  returning  strength  permitted.  The 
bent  of  his  mind  was  intensely  practical,  and  upon  learning  of  the  land  grant 
act  he  immediately  examined  the  locality  where  the  canal  must  be  built  with 
special  attention.  His  practical  mind  saw  the  immense  possibilities  of  the 
venture.  He  wrote  to  his  employers  expressing  his  views  upon  the  subject 
lucidly,  pointing  to  the  immense  mineral  wealth  lying  latent,  the  probability 
that  lands  of  great  value  could  be  selected  and  to  the  general  lack  of  public 
kno\\ledge  concerning  the  country  and  the  magnitude  of  the  enterprise. 
He  asked  and  was  granted  permission  to  devote  his  time  to  the  project. 
Going  to  Xew  York  state  he  secured  the  services  of  one  of  the  most  ex- 
perienced engineers  on  the  Erie  canal.  Air.  Xichols,  of  Utica,  and  returning 
with  him  to  the  Sault  on  the  steamer  Northerner  in  November,  he  organized 
a  surveying  party.  While  Xichols  made  a  survey  of  the  canal  site.  Harvey 
made  a  trip  down  St.  ]\Iary's  river  to  explore  for  a  suitable  quarry  to  furnish 
stone  for  the  locks,  locating  one  eventually  on  Drummond's  Island.  When 
the  legislature  con^'ened  Harvey  attended  the  sessions  and  proved  a  valu- 
able guide  and  source  of  information  to  the  members. 

When  the  bill  was  passed  Messrs.  Fairbanks  invited  well-known  cap- 
italists in  X^ew  York  and  X"ew  England  to  join  with  them  in  making  the 
necessary  bid,  whicli  was  formally  tendered  and  accepted  ]\v  the  state 
commissioners  on  April  15,  1853.  The  first  name  in  the  list  of  bidders  was 
that  of  Air.  Joseph  P.  Fairbanks,  his  associates  being  J.  W.  Brooks,  Eras- 
tus  Corning,  August  Belmont,  H.  Dwigiit,  Jr.  and  Thomas  Dwver.  Their 
sureties  were  Franklin  Moore,  Geo.  F.  Potter,  John  Owen,  James  F.  Joy 
and   Henrv   P.   Baldwin. 

As  soon  as  the  bi'l  was  signed,  Harvev  secured  from  the  governor  of 
]\lichigan  an  appropriation  as  special  agent  for  the  state  to  select  the  lands 
to  be  donated  within  its  border  by  congress  in  aid  of  the  canal.  He  en- 
gaged a  steamer  to  take  him  to  St.  Alary's  river,  which  was  then  closed  by 
ice,  and  dispatched  a  special  messenger  on  snow  shoes  to  the  United  States 
land  office  at  the  Sault,  authorizing  a  deputy  to  withdraw  lands  from  sale 
in  certain  localities  which  Harvev  designated.  He  then  went  to  Wash- 
ington  and  secured  from  the  United  States  Land  Commissioner  confirmation 
of  his  power  to  do  so,  which  was  afterwards  litigated  but  sustained  by  the 
courts.  The  knowledge  upon  which  he  had  acted  he  had  gained  in  his 
tour  among  the  mines  during  the  previous  summer,  and  the  140,000  acres, 


130  THE   HONORABLE  PETER  WHITE 

more  or  less,  which  he  secured  in  the  upper  peninsula  realized  millions  and' 
millions  of  dollars  to  his  principals  in  later  years.  It  is  sufficient  to  state- 
that  among  the  lands  selected  by  Harvey  was  the  location  which  was  after- 
wards developed  into  the  Calumet  and  Hecla  mine,  this  mine  having  de- 
clared to  date  over  $75,000,000  in  dividends. 

The  constitution  of  Michigan  at  that  time  forbade  all  special  charters, 
and  Harvey  accordingly  went  to  Albany,  N.  Y.,  and  secured  a  charter 
for  the  St.  Mary's  Falls  Ship  Canal  Co.  from  the  New  York  legislature. 
To  this  company  Fairbanks  and  his  associates,  who  had  bid  as  individuals, 
assigned  their  contracts  at  a  meeting  which  was  held  in  the  building  at  the 
corner  of  William  and  Wall  streets.  New  York,  then  as  now  occupied  by 
the  Bank  of  the  State  of  New  York.  The  company  was  organized  by  the 
election  of  officers  and  directors  as  follows :  President,  Erastus  Corning, 
Albany,  N.  Y. ;  Vice-President,  John  W.  Brooks,  Detroit,  Mich. ;  Erastus 
Fairbanks,  St.  Johnsbury,  Vt. ;  John  M.  Forbes,  Boston,  Mass. ;  John  F. 
Seymour,  Utica,  N.  Y.,  and  Benjamin  Tibbits,  Albany,  N.  Y.,  board  of  di- 
rectors. 

Harvey  was  made  general  agent  of  the  company,  with  unlimited  exec- 
utive powers  and  a  substantial  stock  interest  assigned  to  him  for  promoting 
the  enterprise.  The  sum  of  $50,000  was  placed  to  his  credit  in  a  bank  at 
Detroit,  and  he  was  authorized  to  draw  on  the  treasurer  for  further  funds  as 
needed. 

Harvey  was  then  practically  told  to  go  ahead  and  dig  the  canal.  Here 
he  was,  practically  alone  in  the  world,  not  much  beyond  his  twenty-fourth- 
birthday,  charged  with  the  execution  of  an  engineering  undertaking  that, 
considering  the  times,  was  simply  stupendous.  The  locality  was  almost  as 
uncivilized,  the  resources  of  the  surrounding  countrv  were  almost  as  un- 
developed  as  when  white  men  first  set  eyes  upon  it  two  centuries  before. 
Harvey's  thoughts  as  he  made  his  solitary  exit  from  that  room  were  ver^ 
solemn  ones. 

He  went  north.  He  stopped  at  Detroit  and  made  it  his  temporary 
headquarters.  There  he  engaged  C.  W.  Chapel  as  foreman  of  excavation 
work,  purchased  horses,  tools  and  supplies,  and  securing  from  the  United 
States  Indian  Agent  the  rental  of  the  agency  premises  for  his  own  resi- 
dence at  the  Sault,  loaded  the  steamer  Illinois  to  the  guards  with  horses, 
tools,  lumber,  provisions  and  supplies  and  about  400  men,  and  set  out  for 
Sault  Ste.  Marie,  where  he  arrived  on  June  i. 

Harvey  is  one  of  those  men  that  lose  no  time.  The  moment  the  Ill- 
inois touched  dock  the  horses  were  hitched  up  into  teams,  the  lumber  hauled 


CONSTRUCTION   OF   THE   SAULT   STE.   MARIE   CANAL  131 

to  the  canal  reservation  and  in  forty-eight  hours  the  men  were  housed  in 
improvised  buildings  and  regular  meals  provided  for  them.  On  June  4, 
1853,  the  third  day  after  landing,  the  workmen  were  organized  into  work- 
ing gangs  of  thirty,  each  under  selected  forem^en,  formed  in  ranks,  marched 
to  the  site  where  Harvey,  with  his  own  hand,  broke  ground  and  wheeled 
out  the  first  barrow  of  earth  from  the  cut  amid  the  plaudits  of  the  workmen.* 
Work  upon  the  canal  was  prosecuted  with  the  utmost  vigor  and  under 
conditions  which  would  daunt  anyone  but  the  most  determined.  As  stated, 
Sault  Ste.  Marie  at  that  time  was  a  comparative  wdlderness.  The  nearest 
machine  shop  was  several  hundred  miles  away ;  the  nearest  telegraph  station 
was  at  Detroit,  450  miles  away.  Everyone  of  the  many  thousand  kegs  of 
powder  had  to  be  transported  from  the  States  of  Connecticut  and  Delaware. 
It  took  six  weeks  for  a  letter  to  reach  New  York  and  return  a  repl}'. 
There  was  not  sufficient  labor  at  the  Sault  to  build  the  canal  and  agents 
had  to  be  sent  East  to  board  incoming  ships,  hire  immigrants  and  take  them 
in  gangs  to  Sault  Ste.  Marie,  paying  their  fare.  Some  wealthy  citizens 
now  living  in  the  upper  peninsula  might  be  named  who  thus  found  their 
way  into  that  district.  There  was  at  that  time  a  scarcity  of  labor  in  the 
West  owing  to  the  railroad  construction  which  was  taking  place  in  all 
parts  of  the  country.  It  recjuired,  in  fact,  considerable  maneuvering  to 
circumvent  the  railroad  agents  who  were  continually  endeavoring  to  per- 
suade the  men  to  leave  their  work  and  go  with  them.  All  drilling  had  to 
be  done  by  hand.  There  was  no  way  of  hastening  work  except  by  putting 
on  more  men.  At  one  time  as  manv  as  2,000  men  might  have  been  seen  at 
work  within  the  space  of  one  mile. 

The  winter  days  were  very  short,  there  being  only  eight  hours  of  sun- 
light. The  cold  was  also  verv  severe,  the  thermometer  frequentlv  register- 
ing" 35  degrees  below  zero.  A  man  was  constantly  stationed  at  the  head  of 
each  runway  for  barrows  with  orders  to  rul)  vigorously  with  snow  any 
man's  face  which  gave  indications  of  being  frostbitten,  thus  preventing  the 
workmen  from  suffering  and  obviating  the  necessity  of  any  man  leaving 
his  work.     The  winters  then  were  far  colder  than  they  are  now.     Indeed 

*  Mr.  Harvey's  life  is  one  that  offers  powerful  testimony  to  the  virtue  of  total  abstinence. 
He  has  lived  a  most  active  life  and  has  done  a  prodigious  amount  of  work.  Yet  to-day,  though 
he  is  approaching  eighty  years  of  age,  his  energy  is  astounding  and  is  far  greater  than  that 
possessed  by  most  men  of  forty.  He  was  actively  hostile  to  the  saloon  interests  during  the 
construction  of  the  canal,  so  much  so  that  upon  one  occasion  when  Mr.  Hargreave,  the  Hudson 
Bay  Co.'s  agent  on  the  Canadian  side,  brought  out  a  bottle  of  wine,  upon  his  first  meeting  with 
Harvey,  from  the  company's  reserve  stock  that  was  nearly  a  century  old  and  priceless  in  value, 
Harvey  astounded  Hargreave  by  declining  to  drink  to  anyone's  health  in  it.  Hargreave  was  con- 
siderably provoked  but  was  appeased  when  he  saw  the  depth  of  Harvey's  conviction  on  the  subject. 
Mr.  Harvey  established  a  Presbyterian  church  at  Sault  Ste.  Marie  which  was  one  of  the  first, 
if  not   the   first,    to  be  established  in   the   north. 


132 


THE    HONORABLE   PETER   WHITE 


the  customary  method  of  preserving  meat  over  winrer  ai  Sault  Ste.  Afarie 
was  to  cut  it  into  roasts  and  steaks,  salt  it  thoroughly  and  put  it  in  a  barrel 
in  the  woodshed.  \\'hcn  a  steak  or  roast  was  needed  it  was  simply  chopped 
from  the  frozen  mass,  the  meat  keeping  sweet  until  spring. 


MR.  CHARLES  T.  HARVKV  AS  HE  li  TODAY. 


During  the  progress  of  the  work  upon  the  canal  in  1854  an  epidemic 
of  cholera  broke  out  and  carried  off  fullv  one-tenth  of  the  workmen.     Everv 


CONSTRUCTION    OF   THE   SAULT   STE.   MARIE   CANAL  133 

effort  was  made  Ijy  the  management  to  keep  the  knowledge  of  the  real 
nature  of  the  disease  from  the  colony.  Therefore  all  burials  were  quietly 
performed  at  night.  The  men  died  like  flies,  and  yet  notwithstanding  the 
ravages  of  the  disease  the  work  was  not  suspended  for  a  single  day ;  and 
owing-  to  the  swiftness  and  secrecv  with  which  the  dead  were  removed  the 
frightful  decimation  was  not  noticed  by  those  who  were  not  visited  by  the 
dread  pestilence. 

But  one  strike  occurred  during  the  progress  of  the  work  and  that  was 
concluded  within  twenty-four  hours.  When  the  strikers  were  marching 
about  the  town  making  a  long  procession  of  i,ooo  or  more,  Harvey  caused 
the  provisions  to  be  removed  from  the  shanties  and  when  dinnertime  came 
and  the  men  returned  with  good  appetites  they  were  informed  by  the  care- 
takers that  orders  had  come  from  the  office  that  no  regular  meals  were 
to  be  served  on  such  occasions.  Fasting  was  the  only  alternative,  and 
before  bedtime  a  company  of  the  strikers  called  on  Harvey  to  say  that 
if  he  would  provide  rations  they  would  return  to  work  the  next  morning. 
The  proposition  was  accepted  and  work  resumed. 

In  22y>  months  the  great  work  was  finished.  ( )n  April  19,  1855^ 
Harvey  opened  the  sluice  gate  to  the  outer  cofferdam  on  the  Lake  Superior 
level  and  let  its  waters  flow  into  the  finished  canal  prism,  doubtless  never 
to  be  entirely  excluded  so  long  as  the  world  endures.  The  canal  was  5.700 
ft.  long,  64  ft.  wide  at  the  bottom  and  100  ft.  at  the  water  surface,  and  13 
ft.  deep.  The  locks,  two  in  number,  were  each  70  ft.  wide  and  iij/^  ft.  deep 
on  the  miter  sills,  with  a  lift  of  about  9  ft.  each. 

The  actual  cost  was  $999,802.46.  On  June  18  following  the  steamer 
Illinois  passed  up  and  the  steamer  Baltimore  passed  down,  and  these  were 
the  first  two  vessels  to  use  the  canal  which  opened  to  mankind  the  greatest 
mineral  domain  in  the  world  and  which  has  conferred  a  vast  blessing  upon 
the  country ;  and  without  which  the  United  States  would  indeed  today  be 
occupying,  not  the  first  as  it  is,  but  the  least  of  places  among  the  industrial 
powers.  Shortly  thereafter  there  passed  through  the  canal  the  North  Star, 
which,  as  has  been  related,  was  the  first  to  bring  the  message  of  deliverance 
to  the  struggling  iron  companies  at  Marquette. 


The   Honorable   Peter  White 


PART      III 


First  Shipments   of  Ore 
Discovery   of  Other   Ranges 
Development  of  the  Ore  Carrier 
Industries  at  Sault  Ste.  Marie 


CHAPTER  XIV. 

FIRST   SIIIP^EEXT   OF   ORE  THROUGH   THE   CANAL. 

It  is  a  matter  of  historical  importance  that  the  Cleveland  Iron  Alining- 
Co.  was  the  first  to  utilize  the  Sault  Ste.  ]\Iarie  canal  for  the  shipment  of 
ore.  The  propeller  General  Taylor  could  easily  have  had  the  honor  of  carry- 
ing the  first  cargo  of  ore  through  the  canal  from  ]\Iarquette  to  the  lower 
lakes,  as  she  was  the  first  vessel  that  occasionally  consented  to  take  ore  to 
reach  Marquette  after  the  canal  was  opened,  but  it  appears  that  the  General 
Tavlor  went  on  to  Ontonagon  and  did  not  call  at  Marquette  on  the  return 
trip.*  Though  the  canal  was  opened  in  June,  it  was  August  before  any  ore 
was  shipped  through  it  directly  from  Marquette.  J.  H.  Andrews,  master  of 
the  schooner  Freeman,  which  was  the  first  sailing  vessel  to  make  the  com- 
plete trip  from  the  lower  lakes  into  Lake  Superior,  relates  that  he  took 
a  cargo  of  ore  down  on  his  return  trip,  but  this  was  a  jag  of  ore  that  had 
been  left  at  Sault  Ste.  Alarie  by  the  Xapoleon  before  the  canal  was  finished. 
The  brig  Columbia,  Judson  Wells,  master,  left  Alarquette  on  August  14  with 
132  tons  of  ore  consigned  to  the  Cleveland  Iron  Mining  Co.  and  passed 
through  the  canal  on  August  17.  The  bill  of  lading  of  this  first  shipment 
of  ore,  which  has  been  preserved  by  the  Cleveland  Iron  Mining  Co.,  reads. 

as  follows : 

"Marquette,  Mich.,  August  14,  1855. 

"Shipped  in  good  order  on  board  the  brig  Columbia.  Wells  master,  by 
the   Cleveland    Iron   Mining   Co.   the    following   articles    consigned   as   per 
margin. 
"For  Cleveland  Iron  Alining  Co., 

"Care  of  Crawford  &  Price,  Cleveland,  Ohio. 
Unless  otherwise  ordered  by  W.  J.  Gordon,  of  Cleveland,  Ohio.     One  hun- 
dred tons  iron  ore  $2.75  =  $275. ob. 

"J.  Wells." 

*0n  June  22,  185S,  J.  J.  .St.  Clair,  the  mining  agent  of  the  Cleveland  Iron  Mining  Co.. 
wrote    to    Mr.    Samuel    L.    Matlier    as    follows: 

"Yesterday  and  last  night  we  were  gratified  at  seeing  at  our  dock  the  propeller  General 
Taylor    and    the    North    .Star    from    below,    affording    us    the    pleasing    certainty    that    we    are    now    in. 


FIRST  SHIPMEXT  OF  ORE  THROUGH  THE  CANAL  137 

The  second  shipment  of  ore  was  made  by  the  schooner  Geors^e  Worth- 
ington,  four  days  later,  the  bill  of  lading  reading  as  follows : 

"Shipped  on  board  the  schooner  George  Worthington.  Donahue,  master, 
in  good  order  the  following  articles,  consigned  as  per  margin  : 

"Marquette,  Aug.  IS,  1.S55. 
"Cleveland  Iron  Aiining  Co., 

"Care  of  Crawford  &  Price.  Cleveland,  Ohio. 
Cnless  otherwise  directed  by  W.  J.  Gordon,  of  Cleveland,  Ohio.     Two  hun- 
dred and  seventy-eight  tons  of  iron  ore  more  or  less. 
"Forest  City  Iron  Co., 

"Care  of  \\  .  j.  Gordon,  Cleveland,  Ohio. 
"Deck  load  iron  ore,  60  tons  more  or  less.     Freight  to  be  paid  in  Cleveland. 

"P.   DOXAIIUE." 

The  third  cargo  was  carried  by  the  propeller  General   l^a\lor,  owned 
by   Tlussey   «&:   St.   Clair,   of   Cleveland,   consisting  of   fifty   tons   of   ore   at 
$3  per  ton  freight.     The  bills  of  lading  in  the  case  of  the  Columbia  and 
George  Worthington  are  not  accurate    as    to    actual    weight.     The    actual 
cargo  of  the  Columbia  was  132  tons  and  of  the  Worthington  ^22  tons,  upon 
which  ^2.7S  per  ton  freight  was  paid.     The  Columbia  was  91   ft.  long,  24 
ft.  beam  and  was  built  at  Sandusky  in  1842.     As  she  had  no  foreboom  her 
deck  was  pretty  free  forward.     During  the  year  the  Cleveland  Co.  shipped 
in   all    1,447   tons   of   ore,   which    constituted   the    entire    shipments   of   the 
^peninsula  for  the  season,  the  other  two  companies,  Jackson  and  Lake  Su- 
perior,  not  being  able  to  ship   any   at   all.     The  little  dock   at   Marquette 
was  a  flat  structure  without  trestle  work  and  the  vessels  were  loaded  by 
means  of  wheelbarrows.     The  crew^s  of  the  vessels  loaded  the  ore,  being 
paid  for  doing  so  at  the  rate  of  25  cents  an  hour.     Nearly  all  the  early  ship- 
ments were  carried  in  schooners.    Steamers  could  not  be  got  to  take  the  ore, 
and  several  propellers  and  sidewheelers  found  it  convenient  to  decline  to 
stop  at  Marquette  on  their  way  down  the  lake  even  after  having  promised  to 
do  so.     The  fact  is  that  all  steamboats  in  those  days  carried  passengers 
an4  were  ill  fitted  to  carry  ore.      Such   a  thing  as  a  steamer   for  purely 
freight  purposes  had  not  been  thought  of.     The  steamers  had  good  reason 
to  avoid  taking  cargoes  of  ore.     They  had  no  accommodations  for  it  and  it 
got  the  steamboat  into  a  disgraceful  condition  for  passenger  service.    More- 
direct    communication    with    the    whole    world    and    the    rest    of    mankind.      The    Illinois    is    said    to 
be    above — could    not    come    down    on    account    of    the    fog.      The    North    Star    was    only    about    eight 
hours    from    the    Sault — a    great    revolution    in    steamboat    traveling    on    this    lake.      You    can    send    a 
propeller   as    soon    as    you    please    to    get    that    ore    of    ours.      The    largest    part    is    now    on    the    dock 
and    the    balance    will    soon    be." 


« 
o 

o 

o 
o 

u 

H 


W      « 

X    < 

Q 

w  ■ 


o 


FIRST  SFIIPMENT  OF  ORE  THROUGH  THE  CANAL 


139 


over,  the  only  way  a  steamer  could  be  loaded  was  by  listing  her  against  the 
dock  and  trimming  the  cargo  later. 

It  might  be  well  for  the  sake  of  history  to  follow  these  few  early  car- 
goes to  Lake  Erie  docks.  The  cargoes  of  the  Columbia  and  Worthington 
were  delivered  at  Crawford  &  Price's  dock  near  the  old  river  bed,  Cleve- 
land. The  General  Taylor's  cargo  was  delivered  to  Hussey  &  St.  Clair's 
dock.  Naturally  the  members  of  the  Cleveland  Iron  Mining  Co.  were  much 
interested  and  paid  frequent  visits  to  their  little  stock  pile.  Mr.  W.  J.  Gor- 
don, president  of  the  Cleveland  Iron  Mining  Co.,  sent  117  tons  of  the  ore  to 
W.  F.  Cary  for  experimental  use  in  the  Orizaba  Iron  Works  at  New  Castle, 
Pa.     A  few  days  later  F.  K.  Beslion,  of  the  Orizaba  Iron  Works,  wrote 

to  Mr.  Cary  concerning  the  experiment  as  follows : 

"Sept.  20,  1855. 
-^'W.  F.  Cary,  Esq., 

"Dear  Sir : — Yours  of  the  19th  to  hand.     I  have  given  Lake  Superior 
ore  a  fair  trial  but  am  sorry  to  say  we  had  to  abandon  its  use  for  the  pur- 
pose intended. '    The  shape  and  size 
of  the  pieces  are  such  that  it  was  im- 
possible   to    build    it    in    the    form 
around  the  plates  compact  enough  to 
stay    until    it   had    been    heated    and 
glazed  together,  and  whenever  a  por- 
tion  fell   out  it  would  fly  to  pieces 
from   the  heat.     What   remained   in 
and  around  the  plates   would   stand 
the  heat  well,  much  better  than  the 
Champlain.      Another    objection    by 
the  workmen  was  that  iron  worked 
from   it  was   so  dry  and  free   from 
cinder  or  nourishment  that  the  iron 
would  not  squeeze.     The  nature  of 
the  metal  that  we  are  using  requires 
all    the    cinder   that   it    can   contain. 
The  iron  made  while  using  the  Su- 
perior  ore,   though    made    from   the 
same    metal,    was    not    so    firm    and 
tough  as  when  made  with  the  Cham- 
plain.     We  intend  to  try  some  in  the  blast  furnace  next  week  when  I  will 
be  able  to  give  you  a  better  opinion  of  the  quality,  etc." 

It  has  been  related  earlier  in  this  history  that  the  initial  efforts  to  smelt 
Lake  Superior  ore  in  the  little  blast  furnaces  were  of  doubtful  outcome,  and 


JACOB    REESE    IN    1855. 


140  THE   HONORABLE    PETER   WHITE 

it  can  ver\-  readilv  be  seen  that  Beshon's  letter  to  Cary  was  not  very  con- 
solino-.  A  few  davs  later  A\'.  J.  Gordon  might  have  been  observed,  as  a 
novelist  would  say,  inspecting  the  little  stock  pile  on  Crawford  &  Price's 
dock,  when  he  was  approached  by  a  man  who  was  to  give  the  Cleveland 
Co.  the  first  definite  encouragement  it  had  received  regarding  the  superior- 
itv  of  Lake  Superior  ore.     This  man  was  Jacob  Reese  of  Pittsburg.* 

Jacob  Reese  was  a  dealer  in  iron  ores  and  appears  to  have  had  confi- 
dence in  the  Lake  Superior  product  at  once.  It  was  through  him  that  a 
considerable  portion  of  the  first  few  shipments  reached  the  furnaces.  His 
first  order  to  the  Cleveland  Iron  Mining  Co.  read : 

'Tlease  deliver  to  E.  X.  Parks  &  Co.,  35  tons  iron  ore  (Lake  Superior). 
Cleveland.  Sept.  27,  1855.  Jacob  Reese." 

After  talking  to  him  Air.  Gordon  wrote  and  asked  him  to  look  into  the 

New  Castle  experiment.     'Mr.  Reese's  reply  was  quite  interesting  and  was 

as  follows : 

"Pittsburg,  Oct.  4. 

"\V.  J.  Gordon, 

"Dear  Sir: — Yours  of  the  25th  at  hand  and  in  reply  would  say  I  have 
25  tons  of  Lake  Superior  ore  coming  here  for  the  purpose  of  making  a  thor- 
ough trial  of  it  as  a  fixing  for  the  furnace,  and  therefore  cannot  go  to  New 
Castle  at  present  as  I  desire  to  personally  attend  to  the  trial.  Am  not  sur- 
prised to  learn  that  they  did  not  use  it  to  advantage  in  Xew  Castle.  Ordi- 
narily in  fixing  the  ore  is  placed  in  the  bottom  of  the  furnace  and  subjected 
to  sufiicient  heat  to  melt  it.  The  furnace  is  then  allowed  to  cool  so  that 
the  ore  becomes  semi-licjuid  and  in  this  pasty  state  it  is  removed  from  the 
bottom  to  the  sides  of  the  furnace  where  it  remains  as  a  protector  of  the 
chills  or  air  plates  of  the  furnace.  The  Lake  Superior  ore  in  the  block  or 
quarry  form  is  the  most  refractory  ore  that  I  have  ever  seen.  It  cannot 
be  melted  in  our  boiling  furnace.  However,  when  it  is  reduced  by  stamp- 
ing or  otherwise  so  that  it  is  susceptible  of  being  thoroughly  penetrated  by 
the  atmosphere  it  melts  at  a  very  low  temperature,  and  when  it  becomes 

*  Jacob  Reese  was  born  in  182S  in  Wales  and  came  to  America  with  his  parents  in  1832. 
The  family  settled  in  Pittsburg  within  a  few  months  after  its  arrival  in  this  country.  James 
Reese  gravitated  naturally  into  the  iron  business,  as  that  was  the  business  of  his  father. 
Between  1850  and  1860  he  sold  over  50,000  tons  of  Lake  Superior  ore  in  Pittsburg  for  fettling. 
He  invented  quite  a  number  of  useful  processes  in  the  manufacture  of  "ron  and  established 
the  firm  of  Reese,  Graff  &  Dull,  whose  mills  were  in  Lawrenceville.  H*.  retired  from  active 
business  over  twenty  years  ago,  locating  at  Darby,  a  suburb  of  Phila'delphia.  He  mamtamed  a 
winter  home  in  Dayton,  Fla.  He  died  at  Darby,  March,  1907,  one  week  after  his  return 
from  his  winter  home.  He  wrote  a  communication  to  the  Bulletin  of  the  American  Iron  and 
Steel  Association  a  few  days  before  his  death,  which  proved  that  he  had  never  lost  interest  in 
the  great  iron  business  of  the  United  States,  of  which  he  was  a  tower  of  strength  in  the 
days    when    it    most    needed     help. 


FIRST  SHIPMENT  OF  ORE  TIIROFGII  THE  CANAL 


141 


solid  again  it  is  as  refractory  as  ever.  One  fixinq-  thus  put  in  will  last  as 
long  as  three  fixings  of  Lake  Champlain  ore.  I  have  also  taken  it  in  its 
rough  form  and  piled  it  in  and  around  the  furnace  as  compact  as  possible 
and  melted  a  small  (|uanlit\-  of  Lake  Superior  ore  and  daubed  up  the  crev- 


-*> 


JACOB    REESE    IN     1906. 


ices.  A  fixing  of  this  kind  has  lasted  three  or  four  days  whereas  with  the 
Lake  Champlain  ore  the  operation  has  to  be  renewed  every  twenty-four 
hours.  I  make  these  remarks  thinking  it  probable  that  they  may  be  of 
some  use  to  vou. 


142 


THE   HONORABLE    PETER   WHITE 


cargoes  to  Lake  Erie  docks 


"P.  S.  Have  just  seen  a  boiler  from  Sharon  who  says  that  it  is  the  best 
fixing  that  he  has  ever  seen  and  when  properly  put  up  will  last  a  week." 

On  Oct.  22,  1855,  Mr.  Reese  followed  up  his  experiments  with  a  more 
substantial  order.     He  wrote  : 

"I  shall  need  from  400  to  500  tons  of  Lake  Superior  ore  this  fall.  Yoa 
will  please  retain  that  amount  for  my  order.  Would  like  to  have  some  of  it 
at  your  most  early  convenience.  Let  me  have  some  of  the  new  kind,  if 
possible.  Parties  that  have  tried  it  here  without  exception  pronounce  it 
superior.    I  would  like  to  have  the  refusal  of  1,000  tons  this  fall." 

It  might  be   well   for  the   sake  of  history  to   follow   these   few   early 

It  has  been  shown  that  it  was  put  aboard  the 
little  schooners  by  manual  labor  of 
the  severest  sort  and  at  a  cost  per 
ton  that  would  today  be  absolutely 
fabulous.  It  took  about  four  days 
to  load  a  cargo  of  300  tons.  The 
unloading  of  the  cargo  was  an  even 
more  arduous  undertaking.  When- 
ever possible  only  deck  loads  were 
carried  by  the  schooners  owing  to  the 
difhculty  of  getting  the  ore  out  of 
the  hold.  To  get  the  first  cargoes 
out  of  the  hold  of  the  vessel  staging 
had  to  be  built  in  the  hold  about  half 
way  up  from  the  bottom.  The  ore 
was  shoveled  upon  this  staging ;  then 
from  the  staging  to  the  deck  and 
then  from  the  deck  to  the  dock, 
making  three  handlings  in  all.  By 
this  process  it  took  nearly  a  week 
to  unload  300  tons.  It  was  mighty 
tedious  and  expensive  work.  The 
next  method  was  to  unload  it  by  means  of  block,  tackle  and  a  horse.  A 
block  carrying  a  manila  rope  was  fastened  to  the  ship's  rigging  and  a  tub  at- 
tached to  the  rope  was  lowered  into  the  hold.  Another  block  through  which 
the  rope  ran  was  fastened  on  the  dock  and  the  horse  hitched  to  the  end  of  this 
rope.  The  tub  was  filled  by  hand  shoveling  and  then  hoisted  by  the  horse 
walking  forward.  To  get  the  tub  back  into  the  hold  it  was  necessary  for 
the  horse  to  back  up.  Planks  laid  upon  wooden  horses,  both  on  the  dock 
and  on  the  deck  of  the  vessel,  furnished  a  roadway  upon  which  the  men  could 


DR.    GEORGE   B.    RUSSEE. 


W 
O 

w 


2! 

1=3 


o 
n 


00 


i/ 

""•7  1 


144  THE    HONORABLE    PETER    WHITE 

wheel  the  barrows  of  ore  off  the  vessel,  two  men  standing  above  this 
temporary  staging  on  deck  to  empty  the  ore  from  the  tub  into  the  barrow. 

Among  the  property  purchased  from  the  old  Marquette  Iron  Co.  by 
the  Cleveland  company  was  sixty-four  acres  of  land  in  Marquette,  and  in 
1855  the  company  turned  the  management  of  this  estate  over  to  Peter  White. 
This  got  the  young  man  into  the  real  estate  business  head  over  heels,  in 
which  he  has  continued  ever  since  with  marked  success,  for  Marquette  is 
practically  built  upon  land  which  Peter  White  has  sold. 

The  old  strap  railroad  went  into  operation  on  Nov.  i,  1855,  and  lived 
a  strenuous  life  for  two  years.  The  motive  power  was  mules  and  the  cars 
held  about  four  tons  each,  which,  said  Dr.  Hewitt  in  a  letter  home,  "is 
enough  for  any  car  to  carry."  The  cars  were  flat  bottom  aft'airs  and  when 
they  were  first  loaded  it  was  found  that  the  load  bore  so  heavily  upon  the 
trucks  that  the  wheels  scraped  against  the  bottom  of  the  car,  which  was 
remedied  bv  cutting  away  a  portion  of  the  platform  just  above  the  wheels. 
A  team  could  not  make  more  than  one  trip  a  day,  sometimes  not  that,  and 
for  the  entire  motive  power  to  move  35  tons  from  the  mines  to  the  lake 
was  accounted  a  big  day's  work.  The  grades  were  simply  frightful  and  the 
cars  frequently  ran  away,  mangling  the  mules  and  jumping  the  track  at  the 
first  curve.  At  the  first  sign  of  trouble  the  driver  could  slide  off  the  car 
into  the  soft  sand  at  cither  side  of  the  track,  but  the  poor  mules  had  no 
protection.     It  was  pretty  expensive  business.     Mules  were  costing  $1,400 

*It  should  be  stated  here  that  George  B.  Russel,  of  Detroit,  a  farsighted  and  progressive 
gentleman,  who  had  established  a  ship  yard  in  Hamtraneck  in  18S4,  conceived  the  idea  of  a 
carrier  exclusively  for  the  bulk  freight  trade  and  built  in  1856  the  pro])eller  B.  L.  Webb,  which 
was  the  first  lake  boat  to  be  constructed  with  a  beam  of  over  30  ft.  and  designed  with  special 
reference  for  carrying  ore.  Unfortunately  the  Vv'ebb  was  burned  on  her  first  trip  to  Lake 
Superior  in  November,  1856,  while  en  route  from  Sault  Ste.  Marie  to  Marquette  with  provisions 
and        mining        supplies.        so        that        she        never        carried        any        ore        at        all.  On      her 

passage  up  wliile  in  shelter  in  \\'iaskey  Bay  she  took  fire,  burned  to  the 
water's  edg'e  and  sank,  causing  the  destruction  of  her  entire  cargo.  The  consternation 
which  this  loss  occasioned  in  Marquette  may  well  be  imagined.  It  was  the  last  trip  of  the 
season  and  the  cargo  of  the  Webb  consisted  of  feed  for  the  horses  and  provisions  for  the  men. 
The  feed  for  the  horses  is  mentioned  first  because  it  was  the  most  important  item,  as  there  was 
scarcely  a  ton  of  hay  left  in  the  village  nor  was  there  any  means  of  obtaining  any  until  spring. 
It  was  at  this  time  that  Mr.  J.  Tallman  Whiting,  who  was  associated  with  Sheldon  McKnight 
at  the  Sault  and  in  the  vessel  business,  came  to  the  rescue.  He  decided  upon  his  own  responsi- 
bility to  duplicate  the  cargo  and  to  send  the  propeller  Gen.  Taylor  from  Detroit  as  a  relief 
vessel  to  Marquette  and  other  ports.  It  was  an  expensive  and  hazardous  undertaking  as  no 
insurance  could  be  obtained  on  the  vessel  or  cargo  and  moreover  the  crew  would  have  to  remain 
with  the  vessel  over  winter  at  Marquette.  The  trip  was  successfully  made  and  though  higli 
rates  of  freight  were  charged  the  inhabitants  of  Marquette  were  very  glad  to  pay  them.  Freight 
was  carried  by  the  barrel  bulk  in  those  days  and  not  by  weight.  Upon  this  particular  trip  the  rates 
were  $3  per  barrel  to  Sault  Ste.  Marie.  $4  to  Marquette,  $5  to  Eagle  Harbor,  and  $6  to  On- 
tonagon. There  was  a  consignment  of  stovepipe  aboard  which  was  charged  at  the  modest  rate 
of  SO  cents  per  joint.  The  Gen.  Taylor  reached  Ontonagon  in  safety  and  was  laid  up  there  for 
the    winter. 


FIRST  SHIPMENT  OF  ORE  THROUGH  THE  CANAL  145 

per  pair  in  the  peninsula  and  hay  occasionaUy  went  to  $50  per  ton.     The 
track,  too,  was  constantly  getting  out  of  shape. 

Both  companies  realized  that  the  strap  railroad  would  never  do,  and 
when  congress  passed  the  land-grant  act  to  stimulate  the  construction  of 
railways  in  1856  overtures  were  made  for  consolidation  with  Ely's  steam 
railroad.  At  this  juncture  Heman  B.  Ely  suddenly  died  in  Marquette,  but 
the  w^ork  which  he  had  undertaken  was  assumed  by  his  brother,  Samuel 
P.  Ely.  The  legislature  of  1857  was  to  distribute  the  lands  granted  by  con- 
gress and  it  was  of  vital  importance  that  a  person  familiar  with  the  situation 
in  every  detail  should  represent  Marquette  in  the  assembly.  The  result  was 
that  Peter  \Miite  ran  for  the  legislature.  There  was  someone  else  running 
also  somewhere  in  the  peninsula  and  as  far  as  known  he  may  be  running 
yet  for  he  was  not  heard  from  at  the  polls. 

Peter's  appearance  at  Lansing  created  a  sensation.     It  took  him  fifteen 
days  to  get  there.     He  made  the  journey  on  snow  shoes  from  Marquette  to 
Escanaba,  took  the  stage  to  Eond  du  Lac  and  w^alked  the  rest  of  the  way  to 
Lansing.     Everyone  was  on  the  qui  vive  at  Lansing  for  the  representative 
from    Marquette,    for    they    realized    the    almost    insurmountable    obstacles 
which  stood  in  his  wa^■.     Peter  was  heartily  cheered  as  he  took  his  seat 
among   them.      Something    of    his    reputation    had    preceded    him    and    he 
always  had  an  audience  in  the  committee  room  eager  to  listen  to  the  story 
of  his  experiences  in  the  trackless  north.     Legislation  then  was  beset  with 
the  pitfalls  and  handicaps  that  mark  it  now.     There  w^as  much  wrangling 
over  the  distribution  of  the  grant — far  more,  indeed,  than  i^U'e  exigencies 
of  the  case  demanded — and  Peter  quickly  observed  that  with  the  lobbyists 
out  of  the  wav  the  representatives  could  readily  dispatch  in  an  honorable 
manner  the  business  for  which  they  had  gathered.     He  made  a  speech  in 
which   he   pointed   out   the   unwarranted    interference   of   those   who    were 
serving  no  great  constructive  interest  and  who  did  not  have  the  development 
of  the  state  at  heart  and  declared  that  they  were  "thick  as  autumnal  leaves 
which  strew  the  brooks  in  A'allombrosa,"  a  simile  so  apt  and  so  sonorous 
as  to  establish  a  reputation  for  erudition  instantly.     They  did  not  know  that 
Peter  the   evening  previous   had   begged   a   learned   friend   to   furnish   him 
some  quotation  that  would  fit  the  particular  point  he  wished  to  score.    Hence 
Vallombrosa.     Peter  did  good  work  in  the  legislature  and  the  grant  was 
carefully   distributed.     He  walked  back  to   Marquette   and   it   was   twenty 
years  before  he  again  served  the  people  in  a  legislative  capacity.     He  was 
now  known  as  the  Honorable  Peter  White 


CHAPTER  XV. 


STEAM    RAILROAD   FINISHED  TO  THE    MINES. 


PTLY'S  steam  railroad  was  finished  to  tlie  mines  in  September,  1857.     One 
of  Peter  White's  recollections  is  rowing  out  in  a  row  boat  some  time 

durino-  the  preceding  year  to  inspect  the  locomotive  Sebastopol  brought  up 

from  Paterson,  N.  J.,  as  it  stood  upon 
the  deck  of  the  brig  Columbia  in  Iron 
liav.  This  was  the  first  locomotive  to 
reach  the  peninsula.  It  was  built  by 
the  New  Jersey  Machine  &  Locomotive 
Works,  Paterson,  N.  J.,  and  was  de- 
signed for  a  gauge  of  4  ft.  10  in.,  hav- 
ing cylinders  6  ft.  2  in.  and  drivers 
of  5  ft.  The  locomotive  weighed  25 
tons,  and  cost  $11,000.  This  locomo- 
tive was  soon  followed  by  a  second, 
which  was  brought  up  on  the  schooner 
E.  C.  Roberts  in  1857  and  was  named 
C.  Donkersley,  in  honor  of  the  first 
superintendent  of  the  railway.  The 
carrying  capacity  of  the  railway 
with  this  motive  power  was  esti- 
mated, when  all  conditions  were 
favorable,  at  1,200  tons  per  day. 
The  conditions  obtaining  at  the 
time  can  probably  be  more  graphic- 
ally conveyed  by  reprinting  an 
editorial  published  in  the  Lake  Su- 
perior Journal  on  August  15,  1857,  which  was  two  or  three  weeks 
before  the   railroad    went   into  operation.*      It   is   amusing   today   to   think 

*  "The    exrcriment    witli    the    ligbt    oars    on    the    T    mil,    of    wliich    we   spoke    last    week,    works 
to    perfection;    indeed    we    are    informed    that    they    run    better,    even,    than    on    the    strap    rail,    and 


PETER  WHITE  IN  THE  6U'S. 


STEAM   RAILROAD   FINISHED   TO   THE  MINES  147 

that  1,200  tons  was  ever  regarded  as  an  avalanche,  but  it  is  a  fact  that  no 
one  identified  with  the  iron  industries  comprehended  the  future  demand  for 
iron  and  the  enormous  consumption  destined  for  it.  Indeed  the  evohition 
of  the  world  was  necessary  to  beget  such  comprehension.  Industrially  the 
world  was  pretty  young  even  as  late  as  1857.  The  Iron  Mountain  Railroad 
issued  a  big  poster  on  freight  rates,  a  fac-simile  of  which  is  produced  here- 
with. It  was  during  this  year  that  Fayette  Brown  went  into  the  peninsula  to 
assist  in  developing  the  iron  mines.  He  was  most  active  and  successful. 
The  name  of  Brown  was  later  to  become  indissolubly  linked  with  the  hand- 
ling of  iron  ore  on  the  great  lakes. 

It  was  in  1857  that  the  land  office  was  transferred  from  Sault  Ste.  Marie 
to  Marquette  and  Peter  White  was  made  register.  A  little  later  he  added 
to  his  duties  that  of  collector  of  customs  of  the  port  of  Marquette,  the  city 
being  made  in  that  year  a  port  of  entry  in  place  of  Sault  Ste.  Marie.  It 
might  be  supposed  that  these  various  offices  would  keep  the  young  man 
busy,  but  Peter  White  perceiving  that  there  were  certain  minor  cases  arising 
constantly  to  be  adjudicated  in  the  little  town,  undertook  the  study  of  law 
in  order  that  he  might  be  the  better  prepared  for  anv  emergency  that  might 
arise.  Paint  you  no  picture  of  a  man  sitting  at  the  feet  of  some  learned 
authority  and  drinking  deep  of  legal  lore.  There  was  neither  lawyer 
nor   judge   in   IMarquette   then.     Rather   paint   a   picture   of  a   young   man 

more  safely.  The  result  of  the  first  week  s  trial  shows  a  perceptible  increase  in  the  amount 
of  ore  brought  down,  and  the  probabilities  are  that  it  will  be  still  more  increased  next  week. 
There  are  now  twelve  sail  vessels  and  one  propeller  loading  and  waiting  to  load  with  ore,  and 
there  is  not  a  pound  on  the  dock  except  that  which  comes  down  from  day  to  day.  At  this 
rate  it  will  take  about  four  weeks  to  load  those  that  are  now  here,  to  say  nothing  of  more 
which  may  arrive.  This  is  a  point  at  which  we  did  not  expect  to  arrive  this  season,  and  hence 
our  repeated  request  to  send  along  vessels.  But  it  is  useless  to  deny  the  fact  that  our  present 
facilities  for  bringing  down  ore  are  insufficient,  and  our  present  circumstances  with  so  many 
vessels  waiting,  are  anything  but  desirable.  But  it  is  an  old  but  true  saying,  that  'it  is  always 
darkest  just  before  the  dawn,'  so  now.  our  companies  are  having  their  greatest  difficulty  in 
supplying  their  vessels,  just  before  the  time  when  the  ore  can  be  brought  down  like  an  avalanche, 
at  the  rate  of  1.200  tons  per  diem,  with  the  present  motive  power  at  command.  Were  it  not 
for  this  we  might  apprehend  trouble  in  the  future,  from  the  present  delays  of  vessels,  but  they 
all  understand  this,  and  will  undoubtedly  be  ready  to  go  on  with  the  business  again  next  season, 
notwithstanding  the  vexatious  delays  now.  The  amount  of  ore  taken  out  of  the  mines  can 
only  be  limited  by  the  number  of  men  employed,  so  that  there  is  no  cause  of  apprehension  on 
that  score.  If  a  sufficient  amount  of  ore  was  now  on  the  docks,  the  amount  shipped  would 
be  at  least  one-fourth  more  than  it  will  be  as  it  is,  yet  we  trust  that  next  season  will  more 
than  make  the  present  loss  good.  The  receipts  on  the  dock,  for  the  week  ending  Aug.  14th, 
are  per  Cleveland  I.  M.  Co.,  654  gross  tons;  Sharon  Iron  Co.,  650  gross  tons;  total,  1,304  gross 
tons. 

"Shipments  during  the  same  time:  Cleveland  I.  M.  Co.,  per  Schr.  Consuello,  254  gross 
tons;  Prop.  JMineral  Kock.  10614  gross  tons;  total.  360'/4  gross  tons.  Sharon  Iron  Co.,  per 
Prop.  Mineral  Rock,  102  gross  tons;  Schr.  Exchanee,  429^  gross  tons;  total,  531J^  gross  tons; 
total  for  the  week,  S82  gross  tons.  A  portion  of  this  week's  receipts  is  now  on  board  of  vessels 
that  are   not    fully    freighted." 


148  THE   HONORABLE    PETER   WHITE 

studiously  reading  the  standard  works  of  law  by  the  light  of  a  candle  and 
conning  them  quite  thoroughly  until  he  had  the  great  branch  of  equity  at 
his  finger  tips.  A  college  of  law  will  teach  equity  last,  but  Peter  took  it 
first.  The  pine  knot  and  the  tallow  dip  have  taken  their  place  in  American 
fiction  because  so  many  characters,  famous  in  American  history,  have  em- 
ployed them  to  lay  the  enduring  foundations  of  their  education.  Peter 
White  is  one  of  them  for  the  United  States  Supreme  Court  later  admitted 
him  to  practice  before  it  upon  the  information  which  he  had  wrung  from 
the  law  books  in  the  days  when  he  was  pioneering.  He  later  formed  the 
law  firm  of  White  &  Maynard,  but  after  ten  years  practice  surrendered  the 
entire  business  to  his  partner. 

On  Sept.  29,  1857,  the  Rev.  Henry  Safiford  united  in  marriage  Ellen 
S.  Hewitt  and  Peter  White. 

The  Cleveland  company  was  the  first  in  the  world  to  adopt  the  pocket 
system  of  loading  ore  in  the  construction  of  the  dock.  The  idea  came  from 
the  coal  fields  of  Pennsylvania  where  coal  was  handled  by  means  of  a  chute. 
The  Cleveland  companv  built  a  trestle  work  upon  its  dock,  and  by  1858 
had  constructed  nine  or  ten  pockets  with  chute  attachments.  The  pockets 
held  only  a  few  tons  and  were  small  in  comparison  with  the  immense 
structures  of  today,  but  nevertheless  they  were  the  forerunner  of  the 
present  wonderful  system  of  loading  iron  ore  whereby  8,000  to  10,000 
tons  may  be  loaded  upon  a  vessel  within  a  few  hours.  Peter  White  had 
his  hand  in  it.  He  secured  the  contract  to  furnish  all  the  pine  to  be  used  in 
the  construction  of  the  dock,  but  Gordon  beat  him  down  on  figures  so  that 
there  was  absolutely  no  profit  in  it.  As  he  was  leaving  with  his  contract 
Gordon  called  him  back  and  said  : 

"We'll  pay  $5  extra  per  thousand  for  all  the  Xorway  pine  you  furnish," 
mentioning  the  measurement. 

"V>ry  well,  sir,"  said  Peter. 

He  did  not  tell  Gordon  that  he  could  furnish  nothing  but  Norway  pine, 
as  there  was  not  a  stick  of  white  pine  in  the  immediate  vicinity  of  Marquette. 
So  the  contract  was  a  good  thing  for  him  after  all. 

At  this  time  there  came  to  live  in  the  Harlow  family,  as  a  cook,  an 
Indian  woman  named  Angelique,  whose  story  as  related  is  the  most  tragic 
in  the  annals  of  Lake  Superior  history.  The  good  God  was  kind  to  this 
woman  Avhen  He  gave  her  grreat  resistance  to  suffering  and  an  exhaustless 
reservoir  of  physical  endurance.  She  had  need  of  them.  She  was  forest 
born  and  inured  to  privation  from  her  birth.  She  was  free  limbed,  full  grown 
and  was  possessed  of  enormous  strength.  She  seemed  indeed  to  be  fash- 
ioned to  demonstrate  to  what  reaches  of  suffering  the  human  frame  could 


STEAM   RAILROAD   FINISHED   TO   THE   .AIINES 


149 


IRON  MOUNTAIN 

Umn  REGDUTIOIV!!! 


All  freight  received  for  traH^portation  mu^^t  be  accompa- 

""d  with  a  mrmoruiiduni  to  b*  siKnoxl  by  (he  owner,  or  ronMiKiiir.KiviiiK  dri«cription  ofarliclcs,  consigoment,  weight  and 
••"'  Kailroad  chargcn  to  tK-colU-cted  upon  di'liviTj  ar^^ording  to  the  freight  tariff.  Blanks  for  thix  purpose  will  be  furnished 
'*j  the  Compan;.    lipoo  delivery  a  receipt  muHt  be  given  bj  the  Cousigiiec. 

Freight  in  packages  mu§i  be  distinctly  marked  with  the  name  of  the  consignee  and  place  of  delivery. 

Property  shipped  in  bulk  must  be  loaded  and  unloaded  by  the  owner  or  consignee.  Cars  so  loaded  most  be  unloaded 
and  delivered  upon  the  Company 'Htmck  VI  ilhin  six  working  hours  after  arrival  at  their  place  of  destination.  TEN  DOLLARS 
will  b«'  charged  for  every  44  hours  detention  Ihereatter. 

Tlie  Company  is  not  responsible  for  damages  occasioned  by  uua>  oidable  delays,  nor  for  damages  from  frost  or  heat  to 
arlirles  aflecicd  thereby,  nor  for  articles  not  suitably  parked  for  transportation. 

OUfVPOWDER,FRICTIOI\  MATCHES, 

And  combustibles  generally,  will  not  be  received  in  the  Com|>any's  buildings,  nor  transported  except  underspecial  contract. 

The  t'onipany  will  not  become  responsible  for  the  transmission  of  money  or  valuable  papers,  nianufUctures  of  gold  and 
silver  jewelry  and  the  like.  None  of  its  agents  are  aiithori/.ed  to  take  rlurge  of  or  receive  compensation  for  carrying 
property  of  this  description. 

Oaiinn  Cor  damages  upon  pro|»er(y  transported  must  hi-  in  ide  an<l  settled  iM-fore  its  removal  by  the  owner  or  consignee. 

l'rop<'rty  lor  transportation  from  the  way  stations  where  Depot  buildings  ha>e  not  been  established,  is  at  the  owner's  risk 
until  reeeite<l  on  the  cars,  and  proptrty  transported  to  such  stations  is  at  the  owner's  risk  after  delivery  from  the  cars, 

A II standing  freight  arrounts  are  to  be  settled  weekly. 

IVo  (rains  will  he  run  on  Sundav. 

FREIGHT    TARirr. 

lintil  further  notice  this  Company  will  carry  freight  nl  Ihe  tolloning  rates: 


Iron  and  iron  ore,  from  Pioneer  rurnace  aad  Jackson  MoUBUin  to  Marquette,  -  -       TOcts  ptr.  ton  of  9090  lbs. 

From  Cleveland  !Wouotain  to  Marquette,         -  -  -  ...      Jfv*-.    .i      i>  " 

From  Lake   Superior  Mountain  t«  Marquetle,  -  -  '  *  ".  .        '-~" 

The  e«rs  to  be  loaded  and  anloMted  bv  the  owwrsor  consigBfesof  (be  property,  and  to  be  driivercd  upon  this  Company  s 
track,  as  provided  in  the  general  r<  sniations.     For  all  other  ftti^tn  douMe  the  above  rates  wiU  be  charged. 

For  all  freiglrt.  excepting  articles  specified  below  from  Marquette  to  Franklin,  -  '  5  cents  p«-r  lOO  lbs. 

From  Marquette  to  Duncans  Miltsr  ^  .  .  .-  '  '  o     il         .^         .. 

"  "  Pioneer  Furnace  and  Jackson   Mountain,  '  -  '  m  .i         "         " 

ki  "  Cleveland  Mountain,  -  -  -  *  ii    u         "         " 

"  "*  Lake  Superior  Mountain,  -  -  ,„.".,  ,.  j  .i,    i-i  „ 

For  enii.lv  barrels,  boxes,  f<;.lliers  and  the  like,  double  the  above  rates  will  fte  charged.     Brick,  «<6oe,  lime  and  the  like 

inriuaiUilies  of  Htonsand  upwards,  loadedandunloaded  by  tJw  owners,  will  l)etakenat  half  theabo»ei*tes.Snialler  quantities 

•■(   ,  re.luetioii  of -25  per  eeiK  lion,  tl.i  al.o.e  rales.     BrUk  arc  reckoned  at  4   lbs.  eacMud  stone  at  3<t  lbs.  p»r  cubic  yard. 
'    Ch  .reoal  and  all  extra  bulkv  articles,  machinery  Bntraire^;tra  heavy  articles  will  be  taken  only  under  special  contract. 
TltciollowiuE  are  the  rates  lor  Lumber  in  quantities  of  <»«00  lbs.  and  upwards  .it  any  one  time. 


Hainre  timber  and  saw  logs  arc  to  bi-  reckoned  by  the  lOOO  feet  board  measure.    Timber  over  20  feet  lonRw  ill  be  charged 
extra  according  to  length.    For  quaiilHies  less  than  et)OOIeet,  'i5  p«r  cent  more  than  the  above  rates  will  be  charged. 
>.  1$.     The  (..i.is  inall  cases  tolM-  -itKHUbs.  ...  ,       ,  ,  ,. 

Ill)  oices  amounting  to  less  than  sJi)  edits  at  regular  rates  will  1m'  charged  -io  cents. 


I    I  unu    ptr    a^ 


**>Ar  >■  ud  rrt>  Ui-^.Kii'  a>  i> 


■  WtMaiMMUh#tb 


THE  OLD   IKON    MOUNTAIN   RAILROAD  S    FIRST   HAND  lill.L. 


150  THE   HONORABLE    PETER    WPHTE 

go  and  still  withstand  the  shock,  for  it  is  not  conceivable  that  any  other 
human  being  could  have  possibly  endured  it.  Her  husband,  a  Frenchman 
named  Charlie  jNIott.  perished  miserably.  This  woman  was  actually  left 
on  Isle  Royale  with  her  husband  from  July  1,  1845,  until  the  following 
spring  with  only  half  a  barrel  of  flour,  six  pounds  of  butter  and  a  few  beans 
as  provisions.  Her  thoughts,  her  sensations,  her  struggles,  her  ruses  to 
cheat  hunger,  the  horror  which  she  felt  lest  she  might  awake  some  day  from  a 
delirium  to  find  herself  eating  her  dead  husband  provide  a  tale  of  somber 
tragedy  which  is  unrelieved  by  a  single  ray  of  light.  She  lived  by  snaring 
rabbits  with  deadfalls  made  out  of  the  hair  of  her  head.  She  was  rescued 
in  the  spring  by  the  crew  of  the  Algonquin,  of  which  Capt.  John  McKay, 
the  father  of  Capt.  George  P.  McKay,  the  present  treasurer  of  the  Lake 
Carriers'  Association,  was  master.* 

*  Angeliqiie  later  gave  the  following  graphic  account  of  her  winter  on  Isle  Royale,  which 
IS   submitted    for   the   tremendov.s    force   of  the   narrative: 

"When  I  and  my  husband  Charlie  Mott  were  first  married  we  lived  at  La  Pointe.  Mr. 
Douglas,  Mr.  Barnard  and  some  other  'big  bugs'  from  Detroit  had  come  up  there  in  the  schooner 
Algonquin,  looking  for  copper.  From  La  Pointe  Charlie  and  I  went  over  with  them,  on  their 
invitation,  to  Isle  Royale.  After  landing  with  the  rest  I  wandered  a  long  wav  on  the  beach 
until  I  saw  something  shining  in  the  water.  It  was  a  piece  of  mass  copper.  When  I  told  the 
.Mgonquin  people  of  it  they  were  very  glad  and  determined  at  once  to  locate  it.  They  said  if 
Charlie  and  I  would  occupy  it  for  them  Charlie  should  have  $25  a  month  and  I  $5  a  month  to 
cook  for  him.  Having  agreed  to  the  bargain  we  returned  to  the  Sault  to  lay  in  a  good  supply 
of  provisions.  There  I  firtit  met  ATendenhall,  the  man  who  brought  us  into  all  this  trouble.  He 
said  there  was  no  need  of  carrying  provisions  so  far  up  the  lake  and  at  so  heavy  an  expense 
as  he  had  plenty  of  provisions  at  La  Pointe.  When  we  got  to  La  Pointe  we  found  that  this 
was  not  so.  All  we  could  get  was  a  half  barrel  of  flour  (which  we  had  to  borrow  from  the 
mission),  six  pounds  of  butter  that  smelt  badly  and  was  white  like  lard,  and  a  few  beans.  I 
didn't  want  to  go  to  the  island  until  we  had  something  more  to  live  on,  and  I  told  Charlie  so, 
but  Mendenhall  over-persuaded,  him.  He  solemnly  promised  him  two  things:  First,  that  he 
would  send  a  bateau  with  provisions  in  a  few  weeks;  and  then,  at  the  end  of  three  months,  he 
would  be  sure  to  come  himself  and  take  us  away.  So,  very  much*  against  my  will,  we  went  to 
Isle  Royale  on  the  first  of  July.  Having  a  bark  canoe  and  a  net,  for  a  while  we  lived  on  fish, 
but  one  day  about  the  end  of  summer  a  storm  came  and  we  lost  our  canoe;  and  soon  our  net 
was  broken  and  good  for  nothing  also.  Oh,  how  we  watched  and  watched  and  watched  but  no 
bateau  ever  came  to  supply  us  with  food;  no  vessel  ever  came  to  take  us  away;  neither  Menden- 
hall's  nor  any  other.  •  When  at  last  we  found  that  we  had  been  deserted  and  that  we  would 
have  to  spend  the  whole  winter  on  the  island,  and  that  there  would  be  no  getting  away  until 
spring,  I  tell  you  such  a  thought  was  hard  to  bear  indeed.  Our  flour  and  butter  and  beans 
were  gone.  We  couldTi't  catch  any  more  fish.  Nothing  else  seemed  left  to  us  but  sickness, 
starvation  and  death  itself.  All  we  could  do  was  to  eat  bark  and  roots  and  bitter  berries  that 
only  seemed  to  make  the  hunger  worse.  Oh,  sir,  hunger  is  an  awful  thing.  It  eats  you  up  so 
inside,  and  you  feel  so  all  gone,  as  if  you  must  go  crazy.  If  you  could  only  see  the  holes  I 
made  around  the  cabin  in  digging  for  something  to  eat  you  would  think  it  must  have  been  some 
wild  beast.  Oh  God,  what  I  suffered  there  that  winter  from  that  terrible  hunger,  grace  help  me. 
I   only  wonder  how   I   ever   lived   it   through. 

"Five  days  before  Christmas  (for  you  may  be  sure  we  kept  account  of  every  day)  every- 
thing was  gone.  There  was  not  so  much  as  a  single  bean.  The  snow  had  come  down  thick  and 
heavy.  It  was  bitter,  bitter  cold  and  everything  was  frozen  as  hard  as  a  stone.  We  hadn't  any 
snow  shoes.  We  couldn't  dig  any  roots;  we  drew  our  belts  tighter  and  tighter;  bi:t  it  was  no 
use;  you  can't  cheat  hunger;  you  can't  fill  up  diat  inward  craving  that  gnaws  within  you  like  a 
wolf. 


STEAM   RAILROAD   FINISHED  TO   THE   MINES  151 

It  is  strange  that  this  tale,  so  pitiless,  so  absolutely  unrelieved  in  its 
cruelt}',  has  never  found  its  way  into  fiction.  The  mind  of  the  novelist  has 
depicted  no  suffering  to  equal  it. 

The  year  1857  was  one  of  panic.  When  iron's  down  it's  down.  When 
things  are  generally  flat  iron  is  the  flattest  of  them  all — and  things  were 
pretty  generally  flat  in  1857.  Money  was  not  to  be  had  at  all.  It  apparently 
did  not  exist.  The  iron  companies  were  hard  put  to  it  to  get  working 
capital  and  keep  their  men  in  good  humor.  It  was  at  this  time  that  the 
genius  of  W.  ].  Gordon  came  into  play.  He  devised  a  medium  of  exchange 
which  later  came  to  be  known  as  ir(")n  monev.  This  form  of  exchange  was  in 
the  rhape  of  neatlv-engravcd  and  printed   drafts   for  small   denominations 

"Charlie  suffered  from  it  even  worse  than  I  did.  As  he  grew  weaker  and  weaker  he  lost 
all  heart  and  courage.  Then  fever  set  in;  it  grew  higher  and  higher  until  at  last  he  went  clear 
out  of  his  head.  One  day  he  sprang  up  and  seized  his  butcher  knife  and  began  to  sharpen  it 
on  a  whetstone.  'He  was  tired  of  being  hungry,'  he  said,  'he  would  kill  a  sheep — something  to 
eat  he  must  have.'  And  then  he  glared  at  me  as  if  he  thought  nobody  could  read  his  purpose 
but  himself.  I  saw  that  I  was  the  sheep  he  intended  to  kill  and  eat.  All  day,  and  all  night 
long  I  watched  him  and  kept  my  eyes  on  him,  not  daring  to  sleep,  and  expecting  him  to  spring 
upon  me  at  any  moment;  but  at  last  I  managed  to  wrest  the  knife  from  him  and  that  danger  was 
over.  .Vfter  the  fever  fits  were  gone  and  he  came  to  himself,  he  was  as  kind  as  ever;  and  I 
never  thought  of  telling  him  what  a  dreadful  thing  he  had  tried  to  do.  I  tried  hard  not  to 
have  him  see  me  cry  as  I  sat  behind  him,  but  sometimes  I  could  not  help  it,  as  1  thought  of  our 
hard  lot,  and  saw  him  sink  away  and  dry  up  until  there  was  nothing  left  of  him  but  skin  and 
bones.     At  last   he  died  so   easily   that    I   couldn't   tell   just    when   the   breath   did   leave   his  body. 

"This  was  another  big  trouble.  Now  that  Charlie  was  dead  what  could  I  do  with  him? 
I  washed  him  and  laid  him  out  but  I  had  no  coffin  for  him.  How  could  I  bury  him  when  all 
around  it  was  either  rock  or  ground  frozen  as  hard  as  a  rock?  And  I  could  not  bear  to  throw 
him  out  into  the  snow.  For  three  days  I  remained  with  him  in  the  hut,  and  it  seemed  almost 
like  company  to  me,  but  I  was  afraid  that  if  I  continued  to  keep  up  the  fire  he  would  spoil. 
The  only  thing  I  could  do  was  to  leave  him  in  the  hut  where  I  could  sometimes  see  him,  and 
go  off  and  build  a  lodge  for  myself  and  take  my  fire  with  me.  Having  sprained  my  arm  in 
nursing   and    lifting   Charlie   this   was   very   hard   work,   but    I    did    it    at    last. 

''Oh  that  fire,  you  don't  know  what  company  it  was.  It  seemed  alive  just  like  a  person 
with  you,  as  if  it  could  almost  talk,  and  many  a  time,  but  for  its  bright  and  cheerful  blaze  that 
put  some  spirits  in  me,  I  think  I  would  have  just  died.  One  time  I  made  too  big  a  fire  and 
almost  burned  myself  out,  but  I  had  plenty  of  snow  handy  and  so  saved  what  I  had  built  with 
so   much    labor   and   took   better   care    for    the   future. 

"Then    came    another    big    trouble — ugh — what    a    trouble    it    was — the    worst    trouble    of    all. 
You   ask  me  if   I   wasn't  afraid   when  thus   left   alone   on   that  island.      Not   of   the  things   you   speak 
of.      Sometimes  it  would  be  so  light  in  the  north,   and  even  away  up  overhead   like  a  second  sunset, 
that   the   night    seemed  turned   into   day;   but  I   was   used   to  the   dancing   spirits    and   was   not  afraid 
of    them.     I    was    not    afraid    of    the    Mackee    Monedo    or    Bad    Spirit,    for    I    had    been    brought    up 
better   at   the   mission   than   to    believe   all   the    stories    that    the   Indians    told    about   him.     I    believed 
that  there  was  a   Christ  and   that  He  would   carry  me   through   if   I   prayed   to   Him.      But   the  thing 
that  most   of  all   I   was  afraid  of,   and   that   I   had  to   pray   the  hardest   against  was  this:      Sometimes 
I  was  so  hungry,  so  very  hungry,  and  the  hunger  raged  so  in  my  veins  that   I  was  tempted,   O,  how 
terribly  was  I  tempted  to  take  Charlie  and  make  soup  of   him.     I   knew  it  was  wrong;    I   felt  it   was 
wrong;  I  didn't  want  to  do  it,  but  some  day  the  fever  might  come  on  me  as  it  did  on  him,  and  when 
I  came  to  my  senses  I  might  find  myself  in  the   very  act   of  eating  him   up.      Thank   God,   whatever 
else   I    suffered    I    was    spared   that;    but    I    tell    you    of   all    the    other    things   that   was    the    thing    of 
which    I   was   the   most  afraid,   and   against   which   I    prayed   the  most   and    fought  the    hardest. 

"When    the    dreadful    thought    came    over    me,    or    I    wished    to    die,    and    die    quick,    rather 
than    suffer   any    longer,    and    I    could    do   nothing   else,    then    I    would    pray;    and    it    always    seemed 


152  THE    HONORABLE    PETER    WHITE 

upon  the  treasurer  of  the  home  office  of  the  iron  companies,  issued  by  the 
mining  agents  in  payment  for  labor  and  material.  These  drafts  bore  a 
general  resemblance  to  ordinary  paper  currency.  The  banks  accepted  them 
as  readily  as  they  accepted  government  currency.  Why  not?  Surely  the 
United  States  government  had  no  greater  reserve  for  its  paper  than  had 
these  mining  drafts.  The  reserve  consisted  of  mountains  of  precious  ore. 
When  the  banks  had  accumulated  a  hundred  or  a  thousand  dollars  worth 
of  the  drafts  they  were  sorted  out  according  to  the  companies  which  issued 
them  and  presented  to  the  home  office,  when  a  ninety-days'  draft,  interest 
added,  would  be  given  for  them.  This  iron  money  helped  to  relieve  a 
stringency  which  otherwise  would  have  stalled  the  iron  mining  industry  of 
the  peninsula.  Owing  to  the  restricted  communication  between  Lake  Su- 
perior and  the  lower  lakes — none  whatever  while  the  boats  were  not  running 

to  me  after  praying  hard  something  would  turn  up,  or  I  would  think  of  something  that  I  had  not 
thought  of  before  and  have  new  strength  given  me  to  fight  it  out  still  longer.  One  time  in 
particular  I  remember,  not  long  after  Charlie's  death,  and  when  things  were  at  their  very  worst. 
For  more  than  a  week  I  had  had  nothing  to  eat  but  bark,  and  how  I  prayed  that  night  that  the 
good  God  would  give  me  something  to  eat,  lest  the  ever  increasing  temptation  would  come  over 
me  at  last.  The  next  morning  when  I  opened  the  door  I  noticed  for  the  first  time  some  rabbit 
tracks.  It  almost  took  away  my  breath  and  made  my  blood  run  through  my  veins  like  fire.  In 
a  moment  I  had  torn  a  lock  of  hair  out  of  my  head  and  was  plaiting  strands  to  make  a  snare 
for  them.  As  I  set  it  I  prayed  that  I  might  catch  a  fat  one  and  catch  him  quick.  That  very 
day  I  caught  one,  and  so  raging  hungry  was  I  that  I  tore  ofif  his  skin  and  ate  him  up  raw.  It 
was  nearly  a  week  before  I  caught  another,  and  so  it  was  often  for  weeks  together.  The  thing 
seemed  so  very  strange  to  me  that  though  I  had  torn  half  the  hair  out  of  my  head  to  make 
snares   never   once   during   the   whole   winter   did    I    catch    two   rabbits    at    one   time. 

"Oh  how  heavily  did  the  time  hang  upon  me.  It  seemed  as  if  the  old  moon  would  never 
wear  out  and  the  new  one  never  come.  At  first  I  tried  to  sleep  all  that  I  could  but  after  a  while 
I  got  into  such  a  state  of  mind  and  body  that  I  could  scarcely  get  any  sleep  night  or  day. 
When  I  sat  still  for  an  hour  or  two  my  limbs  were  so  stiff  and  dried  up  that  it  was  almost 
impossible  for  me  to  move  them  at  all;  so  at  last,  like  a  bear  in  a  cage,  I  found  myself  walking 
all  the  time.  It  was  easier  to  walk  than  to  do  anything  else.  W'hen  I  could  do  nothing  else  to 
relieve  my  hunger  I  would  take  a  pinch  of  salt.  Early  in  March  I  found  a  canoe  that  had 
been  cast  ashore  and  which  I  mended  and  made  fit  for  use.  Part  of  the 'sail  I  cut  up  and  made 
the  strips  into  a  net.  Soon  the  little  birds  began  to  come  and  then  I  knew  that  spring  was  coming 
in  good  earnest.  God  indeed  had  heard  my  prayer  and  I  felt  that  I  was  saved.  Once  more  I 
could    see   my   mother. 

"One  morning  in  May  I  had  good  luck  fishing  and  caught  no  less  than  four  mullets  at 
one  time.  Just  as  I  was  cooking  them  for  breakfast  I  heard  a  gun,  and  I  fell  back  almost 
fainting.  Then  I  heard  another  gun  and  I  started  to  run  down  to  the  landing  but  my  knees 
gave  way  and  I  sank  to  the  ground.  Another  gun — and  I  was  off  to  the  boat  in  time  to  meet 
the  crew  when  they  came  ashore.  The  very  first  man  that  landed  was  !Mendenhall  and  he  put 
up  his  hand  to  shake  hands  with  me  which  I  did.  'Where  is  Charlie,'  said  he.  I  told  him  he 
was  asleep.  He  might  go  up  to  the  hut  and  see  for  himself.  Then  they  all  ran  off  together. 
W'hen  Mendenhall  went  into  the  hut  he  saw  that  Charlie  was  dead.  The  men  took  off  Charlie's 
clothes  and  shoes  and  saw  plain  enough  that  I  had  not  killed  him  but  that  he  had  died  of 
starvation.  When  I  came  up  Mendenhall  began  to  cry  and  to  try  to  explain  things.  He  said 
that  'he  had  sent  off  a  bateau  with  provisions  and  didn't  see  why  they  didn't  get  to  us.'  But 
the  boys  told  me  it  was  all  a  lie.  I  was  too  glad  to  get  back  to  my  mother  to  do  anything.  I 
thought  his   own  conscience   ought  to   punish   him  more  than    I   could   do." 

Angelique  died  at  Sault  Ste.  Marie  in  1874.  It  is  related  of  her  that  once  she  made  a 
wager  with  a  Frenchman  that  she  could  carry  a  barrel  of  pork  to  the  top  of  an  adjoining  hill 
and  back.  She  won  it  with  ease,  and  upon  her  return  volunteered  to  carry  the  barrel  up  again 
with  the  Frenchman  on  top  of  it. 


STEAM  RAILROAD  FINISHED  TO   THE   MINES  153 

—the  iron  companies  could  not  get  money  with  which  to  pay  their  labor, 
so  they  had  to  give  paper  of  some  sort.  The  drafts  were  signed  by  the 
mining  agents  as  issued  and  were  negotiable  in  the  stores  for  general 
merchandise.  This  conception  on  the  part  of  Mr.  (iordon  was  really  a 
stroke  of  genius  for  it  enabled  the  companies  to  be  prompt  in  paying  their 
workmen.  Some  of  the  miners  were  an  unreasoning  lot  and  once  struck 
because  a  boat  which  had  just  arrived  had  not  brought  currency  with  it.  it 
being  absolutelv  useless  for  the  mining  agent  to  explain  that  the  particular 
boat  had  not  connected  with  the  Cleveland  steamer.* 

In  1857  quite  a  settlement  had  grown  up  about  the  Jackson  mine  and 
it  was  decided  to  give  it  a  name.  A  council  was  held  with  the  Ojibwa 
Indians  and  the  name  Negaunee  was  chosen,  which  signifies  in  their  lan- 
guage, the  first,  or  pioneer.  It  was  quite  appropriate,  as  the  tirst  mine 
was  opened  there  and  the  first  furnace,  the  Pioneer,  established  there.  The 
following  year  the  growing  town  about  the  Cleveland  mine  demanded  a  name. 
The  citizens  appealed  to  Samuel  P.  Ely,  who  in  turn  appealed  to  Peter 
White. 

"The  ridge  of  land  upon  which  the  Cleveland  mine  is  located,"  quoth 
Peter  White,  "is  the  highest  ground  between  Lake  Superior  and  Lake 
Michigan  It  is  the  divide  where  one  mav  sec  the  waters  of  the  Carp 
flowing  into  Lake  Superior  and  the  waters  of  the  Escanaba  flowing  into 
Lake  Michigan.     Ojibwa   for  an  altitude  of  this  character  is  Ishpeming." 

"Let's  call  it  Ishpeming,"  exclaimed  Ely,  "it  is  a  beautiful  word." 

"It  also  means  Heaven  in  an  abstract  sense,"  added  Peter. 

"That's  better  than  ever,"  replied  Ely. 

And  so  the  town  was  christened  Ishpeming. 

Iron  money  remained  in  circnlation  on  the  peninsula  for  a  number  of  years,  or  to  be 
exact,  from  1857  to  1872.  This  form  of  exchange  was  suspended  when  there  was  no  longer 
occasion  to  employ  it.  Tlie  issue  ceased  in  1872  because  the  railroads  had  then  penetrated  the 
country  and  actual  currency  could  readily  be  obtained.  In  1874  Col.  Wm.  A.  (layett  was  sent 
as  a  special  agent  to  the.,  treasiu-y  department  from  Washington  to  ascertain  the  volume  of  circula- 
tion that  iron  money  had  obtained  in  the  peninsula  and  to  assess  and  collect  a  retroactive  tax  of 
10  per  cent,  on  each  bill  for  overy  time  it  had  been  paid  out.  Some  of  the  mines  had  put 
millions  of  this  money  in  circulation.  Cavett's  figures  on  the  amount  of  iron  money  circulated 
in  the  entire  peninsula  during  these  years  made  a  total  of  $100,000,000,  and  the  tax  would 
therefore  amount  to  $10,000,000,  distributed  among  the  various  iron  companies.  It  must  be 
understood  that  while  a  great  deal  of  the  iron  money  was  even  then  in  actual  circulation,  none 
of  It  was  being  issued  by  the  iron  companies.  Peter  White  went  immediately  to  Washington, 
and  with  the  aid  of  Zachary  Chandler,  obtained  the  passage  of  a  relief  bill.  Obviously  had  such 
a    retroactive   tax  been   levied   none  of   the   ore   companies  could   have   stood   the  blow. 


CHAPTER  XVI. 


PIG  IRON   MANUFACTURE  IN  THE  PENINSULA. 

MO  sketch  of  the  Lake  Superior  country  would  be  complete  without  ref- 
erence to  the  iron  making  industry  as  distinguished  from  ore  mining. 
As  a  merchant  dealing  in  pig  iron  Peter  White  made  money;  but  when  he 

invested  his  little  capital  in  enterprises 
for  the  manufacture  of  pig  iron,  he  like 
all  the  rest,  lost.  The  time  was  not  ripe 
for  iron  making  in  the  peninsula.  There 
was  no  consuming  population  wdthin  the 
limits  of  its  natural  market. 

The  first  pig  iron  produced  in  the 
Lake  Superior  region  was  made  in  1858 
by  Stephen  R.  Gay,  who  leased  the  forge 
of  the  Collins  Iron  Co.,  and  converted  it 
in  two  days  at  an  expense  of  $2  into  a 
miniature  blast  furnace.  The  forge  of 
the  Collins  Iron  Co.  was  the  third  to  be 
established  in  the  Lake  Superior  country, 
having  been  built  in  1854,  by  Edward 
K.  Collins,  the  owner  of  the  famous  Col- 
lins Line  of  steamers  then  plying  be- 
tween New  York  and  Liverpool,  Charles 
A.  Trowbridge,  of  Detroit,  Robert  J. 
Graveraet,  of  Alarcjuette,  and  others. 
The  two  which  had  preceded  it  were  the 
forges  of  the  Jackson  and  ^larquette  iron  companies  as  related  in  the  pro- 
logue of  this  story.  The  pig  iron  produced  by  Mr.  Gay  was,  of  course, 
purely  experimental.  The  first  blast  furnace  in  the  Lake  Superior  region 
was  built  by  the  Pioneer  Iron  Co.  at  what  is  now  the  city  of  Negaunee.*     It 

'The  following  account  of  the  building  of  the  first  blast  furnace  in  the  peninsula  and 
the  discovery  of  hematite  ore  was  written  for  this  book  by  L.  D.  Harvey,  who  was  the  practical 
man  at  the  Pioneer  furnace.  It  is  a  chronicle  of  extreme  importance.  Mr.  Harvey  is  still 
living    at    Harvey.    Mich.,    near    Marquette. 

D.    C.    Whitwood,    a    schoolmate    of   my    father's,    had    moved    to    Detroit,    Mich.,    in    1848,    but 


\ 


L.   D.    HARVEY    IN    1856. 


PIG  IRON  MANUFACTURE  IN  THE  PENINSULA  1S5 

was  called  the  Pioneer  furnace.  Work  upon  the  furnace  was  begun  in  June, 
1857.  and  was  finished  in  February,  1858.  Mr.  E.  C.  Hungerford  was  the 
agent  and  Stephen  R.  Gay  superintendent.  The  circular  issued  to  stockhold- 
ers of  this  company  at  the  time  of  its  formation  called  attention  to  the  qual- 
ity of  iron  made  from  Lake  Superior  ores  in  the  little  Catalan  forges.    It  will 

his  mother  and  sister  remained  on  the  old  homestead  and  he  looked  after  their  interests  and  he 
spent  the  winter  of  1857  at  the  old  homestead.  He  was  C.  T.  Harvej^'s  supply  agent  in  build- 
ing the  Sault.  Ste.  Mary's  canal  in  1853-4.  In  1857  C.  T.  Harvey  organized  the  Pioneer  Iron 
Co.,  the  furnace  to  be  built  where  Negaunee  City  now  stands.  The  place  was  then  a  dense 
wilderness.  In  February,  1857,  D.  C.  Whitwood  came  to  me  at  the  Berkshire  Iron  Co.  plant  in 
West  Stockbridge,  Mass.,  where  I  was  employed  as  master  machinist  over  the  furnace  and  three 
ore  beds.  He  told  me  that  there  would  be  two  men  from  Lake  Superior  the  last  of  March  or 
the  first  of  April  looking  over  the  furnaces,  about  there  and  to  find  men  to  go  to  Lake  Superior 
to  build  one  or  two  furnaces.  About  April  1  two  men  came  into  the  furnace  inquiring  for  me 
and  they  were  directed  to  the  shop  where  I  was  at  work  and  wanted  to  know  if  this  was 
Lorenzo  D.  Harvey.  I  told  them  yes.  Then  they  introduced  themselves  as  Charles  T.  Harvey 
and  Edward  C.  Hungerford  of  Lake  Superior  and  that  they  had  formed  a  company  to  build  a 
charcoal  blast  furnace  there  known  as  the  Pioneer  Iron  Co.,  and  that  I  had  been  recommended 
by  D.  C.  Whitwood  as  the  man  they  wanted  to  build  and  run  it.  They  wanted  to  look  over 
the  furnace  and  other  furnaces  there.  In  the  meantime  I  had  introduced  S.  R.  Gay  to  D.  C, 
Whitwood  and  he  told  Mr.  Gay  what  an  opening  there  was  out  there  and  that  the  Collinsville 
forge  for  making  bloom  iron  was  lying  idle  and  had  been  for  the  last  year,  and  that  he  was 
acquainted  with  the  parties  that  controlled  the  property,  a  IMr.  Trowbridge  of  Detroit,  and 
there  should  be  no  trouble  in  making  almost  any  arrangement  to  run  it.  And  Mr.  Gay  was 
very  much  taken  up  with  the  prospect  and  wanted  to  see  the  two  men  from  Lake  Superior  when 
they  came.  In  the  meantime  I  had  told  Mr.  Gay  that  if  I  arranged  to  go  to  Lake  .Superior  I 
would  not  go  there  alone  to  put  up  a  furnace  a  couple  of  thousand  miles  from  civilization  and 
if  he  would  go  with  me  and  see  that  all  material  was  got  to  my  hand  I  might  arrange  to  go 
and  build  it.  With  that  and  the  prospect  of  the  Collinsville  forge  he  was  willing  to  take  the 
chances    with    me,    provided    we    could    make    satisfactory   arrangements. 

I  wish  to  say  just  here  that  ]Mr.  Gay  was  the  agent  of  the  Berkshire  Iron  Co.  and  I 
was  employed  by  him.  About  that  time  the  company  changed  hands,  but  Mr.  Gay  could  have 
continued  under  the  change  if  he  preferred  to,  but  with  the  prospect  of  doing  better  he  pre- 
ferred to  make  the  change  in  case  all  went  satisfactory.  As  I  have  said  before,  when  Mr. 
C.  T.  Harvey  and  E.  C.  Hungerford  came  and  introduced  themselves  and  I  found  out  what 
they  wanted  I  soon  found  Mr.  Gay  and  introduced  them,  then  after  they  explained  to  him 
what  they  were  after,  we  looked  over  the  Berkshire  Iron  Works.  But  that  was  a  hard  coal 
furnace.  What  they  wanted  to  see  was  a  charcoal  furnace.  We  told  them  there  were  three,  the 
Richmount,  Van  Dusenville,  Lennox.  They  then  wanted  to  see  them,  so  we  soon  had  a  livery 
rig  and  on  the  way  to  Richmount  furnace.  .\fter  looking  that  over  they  wanted  to  know  how 
much  iron  it  was  making  every  twenty-four  hours.  When  told  that  seven  tons  was  the  largest 
day's  work  it  had  ever  made,  they  w-ere  somewhat  taken  back,  as  they  were  looking  for  ten  or 
twelve  tons  per  day.  From  there  we  went  to  the  Van  Dusenville.  They  w-ere  making  seven  to 
eight  tons  per  day  and  that  was  considered  a  good  day's  work  at  that  time.  With  35  to  40 
per  cent  ore,  about  three  tons  of  ore  to  the  ton  of  iron,  with  35  to  40-foot  stack  and  two  2-in. 
tuyeres  and  one  and  a  half  pounds  blast  that  was  all  they  thought  a  charcoal  furnace  could 
stand  then.  On  our  way  home  they  told  us  everything',  told  how  rich  the  ore  was,  65  to  70  per 
cent,  and  the  splendid  birch  and  maple  timber  there,  and  that  they  had  contracted  for  the 
chips  in  the  Jackson  mine  for  all  the  ore  they  wanted  already  broken  for  the  furnace  at  one 
dollar  per  ton  of  iron  made  and  they  wanted  to  put  up  something  that  could  make  20  tons  a 
day    or    more. 

Mr.  Gay  and  myself  talked  the  matter  over.  Taking  the  rich  ore  and  birch  and  maple 
timber,  we  concluded  tliat  we  would  be  safe  in  recommending  two  stacks  of  ten  tons  each.  We 
laid  it  before  them.  They  consulted  each  other  about  five  minutes  and  came  in  and  wanted  to 
know  if  we  were  ready  to  contract  to  go  to  Lake  Superior  to  build  the  furnaces,  and  provide 
suitable   help   to    run   them.      This    was    about   supper   time.      I    told    them    not    until    I    had    consulted 


156  THE   HONORABLE   PETER   WHITE 

be  understood  that  all  of  the  first  iron  made  in  the  peninsula  was  what  is 
known  as  blooms.  This  is  a  form  of  wroug-ht  iron  made  in  open  fire  by 
charcoal  and  brought  into  shape  under  the  trip  hammer.     Iron  drawn  from 

my  wife.  So  we  adjourned  for  supper  to  meet  ?.t  :Mr.  Gay's  house  at  eight  o'clock.  They  went 
to  the  hotel.  After  getting  my  supper  and  consulting  my  wife  on  the  subject  her  answer  was  go 
at  once.  Then  I  went  to  Mr.  Gay's  house.  lie  met  me  at  the  door  feeling  good.  "What  is  the 
word,"  he  said.  "Go  if  they  will  pay  enough."  We  soon  agreed  on  the  price;  SI. 000  a  year 
and  all  expense  there  and  back,  and  at  the  appointed  time  we  all  met.  After  a  few  minutes 
Mr.  C.  T.  Harvey  turned  to  us  and  said,  "What  conclusion  have  you  come  to?"  Mr.  Gay  said, 
"We  have  made  up  our  minds  to  go  if  all  can  agree  on  terms."  Mr.  Harvey  asked,  "What  are 
your  terms?"  It  was  in  writing,  signed  by  both  of  us.  I  stepped  to  the  table  and  gave  it  to 
Mr.  C.  T.  Harvey.  He  looked  it  over  and  gave  it  to  ]Mr.  Gay  and  said,  "W^ill  you  put  that  in 
writing  and  give  me  a  copy?"  When  the  contract  was  drawn  and  signed,  then  the  manner  of 
building  was  discussed.  We  told  them  that  the  two  stacks  would  be  ample  for  20  tons  per  day. 
They  said  that  was  satisfactory.  Then  they  wanted  to  know  if  there  could  be  a  bank  half  the 
height  of  the  stack  where  they  wanted  to  locate.  The  answer  was  any  height,  so  we  told  them 
we  could  have  plans  drawn  with  that  understanding.  Then  the  style  of  engine  and  blowers 
came.  We  showed  them  the  drawing  of  the  blowers  in  the  Berkshire  Iron  Works  made  at  Cold 
Spring  on  the  Hudson  river.  Then  they  said,  "We  will  depend  upon  you  for  all  necessaries, 
engine,  blowers,  hot  blast,  everything  to  complete  the  works  except  boilers."  Those  were  lying  at 
Marquette,  that  was  used  in  the  Marquette  forge,  and  that  settled  everything.  Then  the  time 
for  starting  was  arranged:  we  were  to  be  at  Detroit  by  May  20  to  take  the  first  boat.  As  soon 
as  we  got  the  drawings  of  the  furnace  we  went  to  Cold  Spring  and  contracted  for  engine, 
Dlowers,  hot  blast  and  all  necessary  pipes  to  complete  the  two  stacks.  About  May  20  we  left 
Westockbridge,  Mass.,  for  Detroit  with  twenty-two  men  and  families  and  arrived  at  Detroit 
about  May  22.  The  steamer  Gilmore  left  the  day  before  and  we  lay  there  five  davs  before  the 
aext  boat,  the  General  Taylor,  came.  In  our  five  days  at  Detroit  we  went  to  Wyandotte  fur- 
^ace  to  see  if  there  was  any  improvement  in  making  iron  from  the  old  eastern  style.  There 
we  found  them  in  the  same  old  rut.  W^e  also  wanted  to  find  how  they  used  the  Lake  Superior 
ire.  They  did  not  use  it  clear;  they  had  found  what  they  called  Blackband  ore  that  they  used 
ibout  one-quarter.  The  founder  said  that  the  Lake  Superior  hard  ore  was  too  rich  to  use  clear, 
that  it  did  not  furnish  any  cinders  to  make  the  furnace  work  pliable  and  economical.  On  the 
first  trip  of  the  General  Taylor  we  set  sail  for  Lake  Superior  about  six  o'clock  in  the  after- 
noon May  27,  1857,  the  first  steamboat  I  was  ever  on.  She  went  slow  but  safe,  used  wood  as 
fuel.  We  landed  at  the  Sault  the  second  day  about  noon,  had  a  good  run  for  the  afternoon, 
)ut  towards  night  we  saw  ice  ahead.  We  went  through  one  field  into  another  all  right.  We 
Tot  opposite  of  Grand  Island  the  next  night  and  struck  another  field  of  ice.  We  could  not 
make  one  foot  of  headway  until  after  midnight.  Then  the  captain  shut  off  steam  and  lay 
■here  until  eight  o'clock  the  next  morning.  Then  the  ice  parted  some  and  the  captain  made  for 
\n  open  channel  and  by  hard  work  we  landed  at  Marquette  about  eleven  o'clock,  June  3,  18S7, 
md  I  was  a  happy  man.  I  said  then  I  would  never  go  on  that  trip  again  and  I  never  have, 
for  I  am  no  water  bird.  After  landing  we  took  dinner,  then  got  a  one-horse  rig  and  four  of 
js  got  in  for  Collinsville;  before  we  had  got  ten  rods  on  Main  street  the  horse  gave  out.  The 
;and  was  knee  deep;  all  got  out  and  pushed  the  rig  up  to  W^ashington  street  and  we  got  in 
ind  rode  through  the  pines  up  to  about  where  Ridge  street  now  crosses  Third  street.  Then 
\e    found    a    passable    road. 

We  landed  at  Collinsville,  found  that  there  had  been  some  money  spent  there  and 
everything  appeared  in  good  working'  order,  and  Mr.  Gay  said  as  soon  as  he  could  be  spared  he 
would  try  his  hand  at  it,  making  bloom  iron.  We  then  returned  to  Marquette  and  in  the 
evening  met  Mr.  C.  T.  Harvey  and  Mr.  Hungerford  and  arranged  to  make  a  start  the  next 
norning  for  the  Pioneer  furnace  location  twelve  miles  w-est  of  Marquette  by  plank  road  and 
•nule  team,  the  only  way  of  getting  there  then.  We  got  there  before  noon,  took  dinner  at  the 
Jackson  Boarding  House,  then  started  for  the  place  where  the  furnace  was  to  be  built.  We 
looked  it  over  and  found  the  ground  would  suit  our  plans,  water  handy  for  boilers  and  stack. 
The    next    question    was,    "Where    are  the  stones  coming    from    for    the    bank    wall    and    stack?"      Mr. 


PIG  IRON  MANUFACTURE  IN  THE  PENINSULA  157 

these  blooms  had  undergone  various  tests  but  by  far  the  most  significant 
test  of  its  breaking  strength  was  that  recorded  In'  D.  V>.  Alartin,  engineer  in 

Huiigerford  said  tliat  there  was  any  amount  of  rock  just  above  the  Jackson  mine,  a  quarter  of 
a  mile  to  haul.  I  told  him  that  1  wanted  to  see  it.  We  all  went  up  and  found  the  rock.  The 
question  was  how  to  haul  it.  They  said  they  could  arrange  to  use  the  plank  road  by  building 
a  train  track  from  it  to  the  furnace,  nearly  a  quarter  of  a  mile  farther.  That  made  a  haul 
about  three-quarters  of  a  mile.  That  settled  the  stone  question.  On  our  way  up  we  stopped  at 
the  Jackson  mine  and  saw  the  chips  ore  contracted  for.  Not  being  acquainted  with  the  ore  it 
looked  all  right.  It  was  in  the  dump  where  coarse  ore  had  been  broken  vip  in  hand  ])ieces.  I 
will    have    more    to    say    further    on. 

From  there  we  took  short  cut  back  of  the  Jackson  mine  straight  to  the  furnace  location. 
About  half  way  through  the  woods  I  ran  close  to  the  roots  of  a  large  maple  tree  that  had 
blown  over.  I  stopped  a  moment  and  looked  at  it.  Mr.  Gay  was  some  ways  ahead  of  me.  I 
called  to  him,  "See  here.  Gay;  here  is  some  of  the  old  Salisbury  hematite  oite."  They  all 
came  back.  Harvey  and  Hungerford  said,  ''Oh,  that  is  nothing  but  rotten  ore,"  and  Mr. 
riungerford  kicked  some  of  it  with  his  foot,  but  that  did  not  stop  me  and  I  shall  have  more  to 
say  again  about  it.  We  kept  on  to  the  furnace  location  and  selected  a  place  to  pitch  our 
shanties  and  then  returned  to  Marquette  to  prepare  for  and  move  the  next  morning  with  lum- 
ber, nails,  tools,  bread,  blankets  and  provisions.  We  loaded  two  mule  carts  with  men  and  sup- 
plies and  at  the  gorge,  about  half  way,  we  loaded  four  more  carts  with  lumber  at  Lewis 
Switzer"s  mill  and  got  to  the  location  about  eleven  o'clock.  With  m.en  and  axen  we  commenced 
clearing  for  our  shanties  and  by  noon  we  had  enough  cleared  for  all  buildings.  After  eating 
lunch  of  hard  tack  we  began  building  shanties  and  by  night  we  had  the  roof  on  two  and  two 
more  under  way.  We  all  stayed  at  the  Jackson  boarding  bouse  that  night.  In  the  morning  I 
left  the  carpenter  to  lay  floors  and  finish  doors  and  windows.  At  about  ten  o'clock  two  fami- 
lies came  up  with  stoves  and  furniture  and  at  noon  the  two  shanties  were  smoking.  I  then 
took  the  laborers  to  clear  a  road  to  the  furnace  location  and  also  the  ground  there.  The  third 
day  I  broke  ground  and  the  earth  was  removed  ready  for  the  back  walls,  as  soon  as  we  could 
procure  stone  and  derrick  to  handle  them.  The  steam  railroad  was  being  graded  between  our 
shanties  and  the  furnace,  the  timber  had  been  cut  just  wide  enough  to  do  the  grading,  and  on 
the  third  day  after  supper  Joseph  Luther  and  myself  took  a  walk  up  the  railroad  to  see  how 
near  the  grading  was  to  our  location.  We  had  not  gone  a  thousand  feet  before  we  discovered 
to  the  north  a  ledge  of  rock  fifteen  to  twenty  feet  high.  We  soon  made  an  investigation  of  it 
and  found  it  just  what  we  wanted  to  build  all  walls  and  stacks.  I  soon  returned  and  reported 
to  j\Ir.  Gay  and  it  was  not  long  before  jNIr.  Gay  and  myself  were  back  there  again  and  saw  it 
was  as  I  had  reported.  We  then  went  to  the  furnace  location  and  found  it  was  less  than  a 
quarter  of  a  mile  from  the  furnace  and  independent  of  plank  road  and  down  grade.  On  the 
fourth  day  we  had  a  road  cut  and  cleared  to  the  quarry  and  ready  for  drilling  and  blasting, 
The  train  track  was  laid  to  the  quarry,  and  derricks  were  erected  at  furnace  and  quarry  for 
handling  large  stones.  From  that  time  on  every  part  of  construction  was  pushed  with  all  speed 
possible,  even  for  cutting  wood  for  cliarcoal.  The  only  delay  was  the  steam  railroad  did  not 
get  through  to  the  furnace  until  about  the  middle  of  August  to  deliver  our  bricks  and  heavy 
freight,  but  she  brought  us  five  carload  of  brick — the  first  freight  she  ever  left  Marquette  with. 
As  the  rail  was  not  laid  a  hundred  feet  beyond  where  the  brick  was  unloaded,  after  that  every- 
thing was  at  our  hand.  During  the  fall  after  the  railroad  was  graded  past  the  Jackson  mine,  I 
happened  to  go  up  the  track  and  a  little  east  of  the  mine  a  small  cut  was  made  through  a  vein 
of  hematite  ore  as  good  as  I  ever  saw.  And  that  'same  vein  has  since  proved  to  be  a  large 
mine. 

A  sketch  of  our  boarding  house:  The  fare  consisted  of  corned  beef,  salt  pork,  hard  tack 
and  potatoes.  Our  cook  was  a  salt  water  sailor  from  Connecticut  and  would  not  bake  bread, 
nor  cake  of  any  kind,  only  what  he  could  make  out  of  hard  tack.  He  would  make  puddings 
and  dried  apples  for  sauce  and  if  any  one  complained  he  was  ready  to  fight.  I  have  seen 
plates  flying  straight  across  the  dining  room,  for  he  was  no  respecter  of  persons.  But  it  lasted 
only  about  two  months,  for  Mr.  Gay  sent  east  after  his  colored  cook.  Then  things  went  very 
well    for    a    couple    of    months.      But    after    Mr.    Hungerford    got    -Mien    Whiting    and    his    wife    to 


158  THE   HONORABLE    PETER   WHITE 

chief  of  the  United  States  navy,  to  J.  C.  Dobbin,  then  secretary  of  the  navy. 
His  report  was  brief  as  follows : 

"A  piece  was  drawn  down  to  one-half  inch  diameter  (round),  made  into 

take  the  boarding  house,  everything  that  a  laboring  man  could  ask  for  was  provided — clean  and 
wholesome  beds  and  rooms  kept  in  first-class  order.  During  the  summer  I  was  prevailed  on  by 
Mr.  Hungerford  to  bring  my  family  to  :\farquette.  After  consulting  my  wife  she  was  willing 
to  come  providing  a  house  could  be  had  near  my  work.  Mr.  Hungerford  said  that  he  would 
see  there  was  one  built  in  time,  but  it  was  not  finished  until  about  Christmas.  My  family 
arrived  the  fore  part  of  September  and  I  rented  a  small  house  on  Washington  street.  Then  I 
soon  made  the  change.  After  I  had  got  the  furnace  under  way,  so  that  my  mind  was  on  the 
machinery,  I  had  the  two  boilers  from  Marquette  brought  up  and  found  it  would  need  the  third 
one.  I  made  plans  of  the  two  old  boilers  and  for  the  new  one  with  smoke  stack,  made  draw- 
ings for  steam  dome  and  all  necessary  steam  pipes  and  fi.xtures  to  set  and  complete  the  boilers 
and  sent  them  to  Detroit  to  be  made  and  delivered  as  soon  as  possible.  They  wei-e  to  send  a 
man  to  put  them  up  when  we  were  ready  for  them,  also  the  Cold  Spring  Co.  was  to  send  a 
man  to  put  up  the  engines  and  blowers.  It  was  necessary  to  bring  all  bank  walls  and  both 
stacks  up  on  a  level  with  the  boiler  foundation  in  order  to  turn  the  three  arches  under  the  hot 
blast  and  boiler.  As  navigation  would  close  about  Nov.  20,  it  would  be  impossible  to  bring 
those  men  here  and  back  by  boat,  as  I  could  not  be  ready  for  them  before  Christmas  or  New 
Years.  The  only  way  was,  then,  to  bring  them  overland.  The  nearest  railroad  to  the  upper 
peninsula  was  at  Oshkosh,  W'is.,  and  a  tough  journey  for  eastern  men  to  undertake,  and  besides 
expensive.  Mr.  C.  T.  Harvey's  headquarters  were  in  Marquette  on  other  matters  aside  from 
building  the  furnace.  About  the  first  of  November  he  sent  up  word  to  have  Mr.  Gay  come 
down  the  next  day  to  arrange  about  bringing  those  two  men.  I  told  him  before  leaving  that 
we  could  not  get  ready  to  set  either  engine  or  boiler  before  the  middle  of  January.  He  re- 
ported to  Mr.  C.  T.  Harvey  and  on  his  own  responsibility  said  that  there  was  no  need  of  either 
of  those  men's  services,  as  L.  D.  Harvey  could  jnit  the  machinery  up  as  well  as  any  men 
imported  at  an  expense  of  four  or  five  hundred  dollars.  j\Ir.  Harvey  turned  to  Mr.  Gay  and 
asked:  "Is  he  machinist  enough  to  handle  the  machinery?"'  Mr.  Gay  then  said  that  he  had 
worked  for  him  at  the  Berkshire  Iron  Furnace  three  years  and  seven  months  and  that  he  had  never 
had  a  job  of  any  kind  to  do  that  he  could  not  do  and,  moreover,  he  had  put  in  a  set  of  blowers 
at  the  Berkshire  furnace  built  at  Cold  Spring,  where  the  Pioneer  engines  and  blowers  were  built, 
and  nothing  could  work  better  than  they  always  had.  Mr.  C.  T.  Harvey  asked:  "How  is  it 
about  the  guarantee  of  their  machinery  doing  the  work  if  put  up  by  another  man  than  their 
own?"  Mr.  Gay  said,  "We  will  take  the  risk  if  L.  D.  Harvey  will  undertake  it."  C.  T.  Har- 
vey said:  "Send  him  down  in  the  morning."  Mr.  Gay  returned  and  reported  what  he  had 
done  and  turned  to  me.  "Will  you  undertake  it?"  I  said  to  Mr.  Gay:  "Did  you  ever  ask  me 
to  do  any  job  in  the  last  three  years  with  you  at  the  Berkshire  Iron  Works  that  I  could  not 
do?"  As  my  family  was  living  at  Marquette  I  was  glad  to  take  the  trip.  I  reported  to  Mr. 
Harvey.  He  soon  broached  the  subject.  He  said:  "Is  it  not  too  big  an  undertaking  for  you 
without  more  skilled  workmen  than  you  have?"  "No,  sir,  that  machinery  is  made  to  go  together 
and  no  man  can  put  it  otherwise.  All  there  is  is  to  get  it  in  line  and  a  solid  foundation.  All 
the  trouble  will  be  in  making  the  steam  pipe  connections,  and  I  think  I  can  overcome  that  as 
well  as  the  men  from  below  could.  .\t  all  events  I  will  run  the  risk."  INIr.  C.  T.  Harvey 
replied:  "That  settles  one  important  question  and  is  a  great  relief  to  me  and  I  will  see  that 
you  are  rewarded  for  your  extra  energies  in  pushing  the  works  to  a  completion."  I  returned  to 
the  works  and  made  a  list  of  tools,  gas  pipe,  packing  iron  to  complete  the  work  and  they 
arrived  in  good  time.  Then  I  had  everything  my  own  way  and  as  fast  as  the  works  would 
receive  any  part  of  the  machinery  or  boilers,  hot  blast,  it  was  shoved  in  place  ready  for  the 
next,  until  it  was  all  in  place.  I  had  no  trouble  in  finding  men  to  help.  There  were  men  that 
knew  nothing  about  machinery  only  as  I  told  them  and  helped  them.  It  took  about  all  of  my 
time  looking  after  the  carpenters  and  masons.  I  was  told  that  it  did  not  thaw  from  the  first 
of  November  until  the  first  of  May,  and  when  I  plowed  through  the  ice  in  Marquette  Bay  on 
June  3,  1857,  I  began  to  think  there  was  something  in  it.  But  about  Jan.  5,  1858,  we  had  a 
January  thaw  that  kept  us  busy  all  one  day  to  clean  the  snow  from  our  mason  work  that  was 
not  finished  and  in  -April  the  snow  all  went  off  about  the  clearings,  but  that  winter  we  had 
about    S    ft.    of    snow. 


PIG  IRON  MANUFACTURE  IN  THE  PENINSULA  159 

a  chain  link,  tested  in  the  chain  proving  machine  and  broke  at  75/:.  tons  or 
169,120  pounds." 

The  force  of  this  test  can  be  appreciated  when  it  is  known  that  the 

Just  before  navigation  closed  we  imported  a  founder,  Daniel  Woodruff,  from  Bennington. 
V't.,  a  man  tliat  was  brought  up  in  a  furnace,  recommended  by  Mr.  Gillison,  our  boss  fire  brick 
mason,  from  the  same  place,  and  he  had  the  hearth  and  tuyeres  placed  after  the  style  of  those 
days — two  tuyeres,  brick  dam  and  temp,  and  I  was  on  time  with  hot  blast  engine,  boilers  and 
hoist.  About  the  middle  of  April  I  fired  up  the  boilers  to  test  the  steam  pipes  and  engine  and 
everything  went  as  smooth  as  though  it  had  been  running  a  year,  except  that  a  few  steam 
joints  had  to  be  tightened  up,  not  two  hours'  work.  When  I  got  them  all  right  I  let  her  go. 
The  engine-room  was  filled  with  men  and  women,  the  whistle  was  blown  for  ten  minutes  after  I 
had  tested  everything.  She  was  shut  down  until  a  day  or  two  before  starting  the  furnace,  then 
she  was  started.  Everything  was  ready  for  the  blast.  The  builders  of  the  engines  and  Mr. 
C.  T.  Harvey  were  notified  that  every  part  of  the  machinery  was  up  and  had  been  tested  and 
every  part  worked  like  clock-work,  and  it  was  a  big  load  off  of  my  shoulders  to  see  it  start  off 
without  a  hitch.  It  was  a  big  undertaking  without  a  machine  shop  nearer  than  Detroit.  When 
the  six-inch  cast  iron  steam  pipe  came  together  it  was  a  foot  too  long  owing  to  a  bed  of  quick- 
sand T  struck  in  setting  the  engine  foundation.  That  I  cut  off  and  a  wrought  iron  flange 
shrunk  on  in  place  of  the  cast  iron  one  cut  off.  But  notwithstanding  mishaps  all  was  on  time 
with  other  parts  of  construction  work.  About  April  20  we  were  ready  to  make  a  start.  We  had 
a  kiln  of  ore.  In  those  days  all  ore  must  be  roasted  before  going  into  the  furnace.  I  will 
explain  the  roasting  process.  It  consists  of  a  layer  of  logs  on  the  ground,  say  thirty  feet 
square,  then  a  layer  of  ore  a  foot  thick,  then  a  layer  of  coal  braze  six  inches  thick,  then 
another  layer  of  ore,  so  on  as  high  as  handy  to  throw  up.  By  drawing  each  layer  in,  it  would 
be  half  tlie  size  on  top  of  the  first  layer;  then  settling  fire  to  it,  it  would  burn  a  week.  The 
ore  was  broken  up  to  the  size  of  butternuts  before  using  it.  This  will  seem  strange  to  the 
manufacturers  of  iron  at  the  present  day.  Starting  to  make  the  first  iron,  the  stack  was  filled 
in  the  morning  about  half  full  with  charcoal,  the  balance  with  light  charges  of  ore  and  flux  and 
fired  at  the  hearth.  Now  Mr.  Gay  said  to  me,  "Give  us  wind  and  water,  and  Woodruff  and 
myself  will  make  the  iron."  "All  right,  you  shall  have  all  you  want,"  said  I,  as  I  knew  that 
the  engine  and  pumps  were  capable  of  doing'  twice  the  amount  of  work.  The  furnace  took  the  blast 
all  right  to  all  appearance  and  everything  looked  favorable  for  a  good  start  until  the  next  morning 
when  the  ore  began  to  come  into  the  hearth.  It  did  not  separate,  iron  and  cinders,  but  all  came  to- 
gether. It  was  what  we  call  stog.  Then  the  lime  was  increased,  but  it  did  not  overcome.  The  ore 
was  ta-ken  off  and  changed  for  two  days  and  night.  Finally  she  began  to  work  a  little  better,  but 
Mr.  Gay  and  Woodruff  were  about  played  out  for  sleep.  The  second  night  about  twelve  o'clock 
they  came  to  me  and  said  they  must  have  some  rest.  I  told  them  both  to  go  to  their  bunks 
and  I  would  take  a  man  and  look  after  it  until  morning,  but  if  she  took  a  turn  backwards  I 
would  call  them.  But  it  improved  slowly  and  about  four  o'clock  in  the  morning  I  saw  that  she 
liad  separated  and  cinders  were  at  the  tuyeres,  and  soon  made  a  pig  bed,  of  a  dozen  pigs  and 
let  the  hearth  fill  with  iron  and  cinders  up  to  the  tuyeres.  Tlien  I  tapped  her  and  got  the 
first  five  pigs  of  iron  made  on  the  upper  peninsula.  At  six  o'clock  the  whistle  blew  and  out 
came  Mr.  Gay  and  Woodruff.  "Well,  how  is  she?"  they  asked.  I  pointed  to  the  five  pigs. 
They  bothed  laughed  and  said  they  knew  she  was  all  right  or  they  would  not  have  left  her.  If 
Mr.  Gay  is  entitled  to  the  credit  of  the  first  iron  made,  I  am  also,  as  we  both  came  to  build 
and  start  her.  But  under  the  circumstances  I  claim  the  credit,  though  it  may  not  belong  to  me. 
We  will  let  the  readers  decide.  From  that  time  on  she  never  worked  well.  Some  days  she 
would  warm  up  and  appear  as  though  she  was  all  right.  The  next  day  she  would  be  cold  and 
black,  the  iron  would  not  separate  from  the  cinders.  Then  she  would  take  a  turn  and  so  on 
for  about  ten  days.  At  last  the  foundryman  notified  me  that  he  wanted  to  be  relieved  from  all 
responsibility  of  making  iron  from  Lake  Superior  ore  and  lime.  He  said  that  no  man  could. 
As  we  had  a  small  stock  of  coal  on  hand  we  made  up  our  minds  to  blow  her  out  and  relieve 
Woodruff  and  let  our  coal  accumulate,  and  in  the  meantime  try  some  other  man  and  do  the 
necessary  repairs  to  the  furnace  ready  for  another  start.  As  soon  as  we  concluded  to  blow- 
out and  try  another  foundryman,  Mr.  Gay  sent  a  letter  to  Joseph  Harris,  the  man  that  was 
foundryman    at    the    Wyandotte    furnace,    below    Detroit,    where    we    made    a    stop    on    our    way    to 


160  THE    HONORABLE    PETER    WHITE 

British  admiralty  proof  of  chain  cable  at  that  time,  of  which  the  round 
iron  is  seven-eighths  of  an  inch  in  diameter,  was  fourteen  tons,  and  the 
American  proof  chain  of  the  same  dimensions  was  fifteen  tons.     The  piece 

Lake  Superior.  This  was  about  the  opening  of  navigation.  We  made  him  an  offer  and  he 
was  on  hand  about  the  first  of  June,  1858.  The  first  failure  of  tlie  furnace  in  not  starting  off 
any  better  was  not  all  the  fault  of  the  foundryman.  The  most  fault  was  in  the  chip  ore  after 
a  close  examination.  As  I  have  said  before,  the  company  had  a  contract  with  the  Jackson  Iron 
Co.  for  the  chips  of  their  mine,  that  is,  the  small  pieces  that  could  not  be  picked  up  by  hand 
were  shoveled  into  carts  and  dumped  outside  the  mine.  It  will  be  perfectly  plain  to  any  man 
that  the  good  ore  must  mix  with  the  rock  and  Jasper  that  they  came  in  contact  with  in  mining 
the  ore.  .Such  pieces  of  rock  and  Jasper  that  were  large  enough  to  handle  were  thrown  into 
carts  and  what  was  called  chips  was  shoveled  ore,  Jasper,  and  rock  all  together.  I  do  not  think 
the  Jackson  mine  was  an  underground  mine  at  that  time.  It  was  an  open  pit  in  the  side  hill 
where  the  train  track  went  into  it  on  a  level  with  the  main  track.  The  Jasper  and  rock  was 
responsible  for  a  part  of  the  first  block  up  and  a  part  in  the  new  hearth  all  being  built  in  the 
winter  and  not  being  thoroughly  dried  before  starting,  the  Jasper  and  rock  referred  to  was  near 
one-quarter  of  the  chips  used  and  it  took  twice  the  amount  of  coal  to  melt  them  as  it  did  the 
pure  ore.  After  blowing  out  we  concluded  to  make  the  next  start  on  a  part  of  the  rotten 
liematite  ore  as  it  was  called  in  those  days.  Between  the  time  of  blowing  out  and  starting  the 
second  time  we  had  about  fifty  tojTs  mined  and  hauled  to  the  furnace  and  as  soon  as  Mr.  Har- 
ris arrived,  we  were  ready  to  start,  after  he  had  arranged  his  tuyeres  and  made  some  small 
changes.  When  he  came  he  said  that  we  would  have  some  trouble  with  clear  hard  ore,  as 
they  had  at  Wyandotte  until  they  got  a  mixture  of  what  they  called  the  black  band  ore.  He 
was  formerly  from  the  east  near  the  old  Salisbury  ore  district  and  when  we  showed  him  the 
fifty  tons  of  hematite  ore  he  exclaimed:  "Why,  where  did  you  get  that?  Why,  that  looks  like 
our  eastern  ore."  It  was  some  time  before  he  could  believe  it  was  here,  as  he  had  been  told 
that  there  was  no  other  on  Lake  Superior  but  the  hard  ledge  ore.  It  was  but  a  short  distance  to 
the  railroad  cut  where  I  found  it  the  year  before.  "So  come,"  said  I,  "and  I  will  convince 
you  that  it  is  not  imported  ore."  When  he  saw  it  he  said,  "I  am  not  afraid  of  making  a  start 
with  one-half  of  it  with  hard  ore."  When  all  was  ready  he  had  the  stack  filled  and  lightly 
charged  with  the  mixture  of  ores  and  lime  and  fired  and  in  six  hours  the  blast  was  put  on 
and  she  started  off  very  well  and  made  a  cast  the  next  morning.  But  it  was  a  week  or  more 
before  he  could  handle  her,  but  made  some  four  to  six  tons  a  day.  After  she  got  warmed  up 
and  increased  the  hematite  ore,  she  made  what  she  was  built  for  and  more.  The  number  of 
tons  she  made  I  do  not  remember.  Now  our  founder  was  an  eastern  man  and  would  not  submit 
to  the  first  improvement  from  the  old  style  of  tymp  or  dam.  Twice  a  week  we  had  to  shut 
down  abovit  two  Iio\irs  to  put  in  a  new  tymp  and  dam  and  sto])  the  stack  back  with  clay  in 
order  to  put  in  the  fire  brick.  I  got  tired  of  it  and  told  the  founder  that  I  would  put  in  a 
water  tymp  and  dam.  Lie  said  I  would  chill  the  furnace  up  with  them.  "I  will  run  the  risk 
of  it,"  I  told  him.  After  fooling  with  the  old  style  of  tymp  about  two  months,  I  made  a 
pattern  for  a  tymp,  dam  and  dust  plate  and  bent  the  gas  pipe  to  fit  and  cast  them  in  the 
pig  bed,  and  the  next  tymp  was  a  water  one.  The  furnace  took  a  turn  about  that  time  and  it 
was  all  laid  to  the  water  tymji.  Harris  came  to  me  and  said  that  it  had  chilled  the  furnace. 
I  said:  "Shut  off  the  water  for  a  spell  and  let  her  warm  up,"  and  after  a  couple  of  hours  the 
furnace  was  all  right  again,  and  the  next  day  he  said  it  was  the  nicest  thing  he  ever  saw  for 
a  tymp  and  when  the  next  dam  was  wanted  in  went  the  water  dam  and  dust  plate.  The  next 
day  we  stopped  to  put  in  the  old  style  tymp  and  dam  and  we  were  from  one  to  two  tons 
short  of  iron.  They  were  a  new  thing  for  a  charcoal  furnace,  but  all  hard  coal  furnaces 
used  them  and  I  could  not  see  why  tliey  could  not  be  used  in  a  charcoal  one.  At  all  events  I 
was  bound  to  try  them  and  they  were  a  success  and  all  the  furnaces  built  on  Lake  Superior 
from  that  time  on  used  the  same  pattern.  Our  coal  was  all  made  in  coal  pits,  but  during  the 
summer  of  1858  and  the  winter  of  1859,  I  built  brick  coal  kilns  and  one  cast  iron,  cone  shaped, 
lined  with  one  layer  of  brick  four  inches  thick  got  up  by  C.  T.  Harvey.  It  worked  very  well 
at  first,  but  it  would  not  stand  the  expansion.  The  flanges  ttiat  held  it  together  gave  out  and  I 
put  three  bands  of  wrought  iron  around  it.  It  was  in  use  that  way  some  two  or  three  years, 
hut    the    sheet    iron    kilns    gotten     nj)    by    him     later    on    were    a    success    in    all     respects    in    making 


PIG  IRON  MANUFACTURE  IN  THE  PENINSULA  161 

of  iron  tested  by  Chief  Engineer  Alartin,  therefore,  was  more  than  five 
times  the  proof  test  required  of  chain  Hnk  of  nearly  twice  the  diameter. 
Think  of  tlie  sensation  which  Chief  Engineer  JNIartin  must  have  received. 

coal.  They  held  thirty  cords  of  wood.  They  were  emptied  twice  a  month,  making  from  twelve 
to  thirteen  hundred  bushels  each  time.  In  June,  1859,  I  left  the  Pioneer  furnace  and  moved 
to  Marquette  to  take  charge  of  the  building  of  the  Northern  furnace,  four  miles  south  of  Mar- 
quette, and  a  man  by  the  name  of  Spillman  took  charge  of  the  Pioneer  furnace.  He  gradually 
decreased  the  chip  ore  and  added  the  hematite.  His  term  was  short  and  Mr.  J.  B.  Case  took 
his  place  in  1S60.  He  was  a  practical  furnace  man  and  he  stopped  using  the  chips  and  opened 
a  mine  and  mined  his  entire  stock  of  ore.  It  was  on  the  Jackson  Company's  land.  I  think  the 
royalty    was    the    same    as    when    the    chips    were    used. 

This  is  a  true  statement  of  my  labor  and  experience  from  Tune,  1S57,  to  June.  1859,  and 
I  think  I  am  entitled  to  the  credit  of  building  the  first  furnace  on  Lake  Superior  and  making 
the  first  pig  iron;  also  the  finding  and  using  the  first  hematite  ore,  as  it  is  the  only  ore  that  is 
sought   for   and    used   by   all   manufacturers    of   pig    iron   at    the    present    day. 

In  the  winter  of  1859  C.  T.  Harvey  organized  the  Northern  ^Michigan  Iron  Co.,  to  be 
located  at  the  mouth  of  the  Chocolay  river,  four  miles  south  of  Marquette.  I  was  engaged  to 
build  and  superintend  the  work.  The  engines  and  blowers  were  built  at  Cold  Spring.  N.  Y.,  a 
duplicate  of  the  Pioneer  Iron  Co.'s  mach.inery  except  much  larger,  as  the  furnace  was  to  be  a 
hard  coal  one.  It  was  not  finished  that  fall.  The  propeller  Manhattan  that  was  to  bring  out 
last  stone  and  brick  went  ashore  near  Grand  Marais,  but  a  duplicate  of  her  cargo  came  the  next 
spring.  She  was  finished  during  the  summer  and  a  stock  of  coal  also  shipped.  Our  ore  was 
hauled  from  Marquette  dock  by  scows,  and  a  steamboat  called  the  Foggie.  She  would  make  four 
miles  an  hour  if  all  was  calm,  but  if  she  had  a  head  wind  enough  to  make  the  least  ripple  on 
the  lake  she  would  just  about  hold  her  own  until  the  wind  went  down.  We  made  a  point  to 
start  down  just  before  sunset.  Tlie  furnace  was  started  and  ran  about  two  months.  Then  the 
stock  of  coal  was  used  up.  We  were  surrounded  Ly  farmers  and  they  complained  ab3ut  the 
building  of  a  hard  coal  furnace  in  the  woods.  What  they  wanted  was  a  charcoal  furnace  so 
they  could  clear  their  farms  and  offered  to  give  all  their  wood  if  the  company  would  change  it 
to  charcoal.  In  the  winter  and  summer  of  1861  she  was  changed  and  ten  eighty-cord  kilns  were 
built.  In  the  meantime  we  gave  all  a  chance  to  make  pit  coal  at  seven  dollars  per  hundred 
bushels  and  we  accum.ulated  a  small  stock  of  coal  by  using  the  kilns  as  fast  as  they  were 
finished,  btit  they  did  not  furnish  coal  to  run  her  steady.  In  the  same  summer  "Mr.  C.  T. 
Harvey  had  a  sheet  iron  kiln  built  below,  the  same  size  and  shape  as  the  cast  iron  kiln  at 
Ncgaunee,  all  in  sections,  to  put  up  for  a  trial,  lined  with  four-inch  brick,  and  it  proved  a  suc- 
cess. But  the  steamboats  charged  double  freight,  owing  to  the  sections  being  so  large  the  only 
place  they  could  put  them  was  on  top  of  the  cabin  deck.  As  the  furnace  had  to  lay  idle  a 
part  of  the  winter,  I  said  to  Mr.  Harvey.  "Have  the  sheet  iron  and  angle  iron  cut  in  right 
shape  and  bundled  up  and  shipped  here  and  I  will  punch  and  rivet  them  here  and  keep  my 
men  at  work."  He  hardly  believed  it  could  be  done,  but  I  said.  "Send  me  everything'  for 
twelve  kilns  and  if  they  are  not  up  and  smoking  before  next  ^lay  you  can  discharge  me  without 
pay."  Before  blowing  the  furnace  out  of  cast,  all  necessary  plates  to  shape  the  iron  and 
punch  them,  I  had  them  all  in  the  work,  but  soon  had  them  so  advanced  I  could  set  one  up 
every  week  after  I  got  them  under  way  and  masons  to  line  them.  They  were  all  smoking  on 
time,  a  hard  thing  to  believe,  but  ten  of  them  did  turn  out  more  charcoal  each  month  than  the 
ten  eighty-cord  square  brick  kilns.  They  held  thirty  cords  each  and  turned  twice  a  month  with 
all  ease.  We  ran  vmtil  the  farmers'  wood  was  all  used  up,  and  all  other  wood  to  be  had  within 
hauling  distance.  Then  she  was  blown  out  and  I  was  left  in  charge  of  the  property.  All 
teams  and  wagons,  harness,  sleighs,  were  disposed  of.  After  it  was  decided  to  make  the  next 
start  with  hard  coal  again  in  1873  she  was  changed,  but  the  big  panic  struck  before  she  was 
finished  wdth  a  large  stock  of  hard  coal  at  the  furnace.  It  was  sold  to  Mr.  Wheaton  and 
hauled  to  the  rolling  mill  furnace  at  ^Marquette  by  teams.  That  was  the  last  of  her  until  1890. 
She  changed  hands  and  I  changed  her  back  to  charcoal  again  and  ran  eleven  months  and  stopped 
as    the    price    of   pig    iron    was    below    cost    of    manufacture,    and    I    have    had    the    care    of    it    up    to 


FIG  IROX  .MAXUl'ACTURE  IX  TtlE  PENINSULA 


163 


The  chain  should  have  broken  before  the  weight  had  reached  twelve  tons. 
The  wonder  grew  as  the  weight  increased  from  ten  to  twenty,  to  thirtv,  to 
forty,  to  hfty.  to  sixty,  to  seventy  and  yet  the  chain  withstood  it  until  live  and 
one-half  more  tons  were  added.  The  test  established  a  new  breaking  strength 
for  iron. 

The  circular  of  the  Pioneer  Iron  Co.  was  as  glittering  as  the  modern 
prospectus.     The  circular  stated  that  the  company  controlled  4,134  acres  of 


THE     FURNACE     AT     FOKESTVILLE,     NEAR     MARQUETTE,     BUILT     IN      1860. 


this  day.  In  1S"0  I  superintended  the  building  of  the  P.ay  furnace  at  Grand  Island.  In  1871 
or  187 J  I  remodeled  the  Bancroft  furnace  over  by  raising  her  stack  ten  feet  and  moved  her 
hot  blast  from  top  of  stack  into  the  ground,  and  raised  the  top  house  aside  from  all  furnace 
cares.  In  1860  I  built  a  house  here  and  have  occupied  it  ever  since.  The  township  of  Choco- 
lay  was  organized  about  the  same  time  and  I  filled  the  office  of  justice  of  the  peace  eight 
years,  and  moderator  of  schools  until  1888,  and  postmaster  from  1866-1896,  and  supervisor  of  the 
.township  from  1866  to  1881,  and  aside  from  that  I  have  built  five  sawmills,  several  houses  and 
barns,  and  done  about  all  the  surveying  of  the  townships  of  Chocolay,  Yalmer.  West  Branch  and 
.Sands,  and  have  all  the  work  that  I  can  handle.  I  am  not  a  retired  man,  but  should  be  but  for 
iTiisfortunes   that    I    will    not   exiilain. 

The  above  is  a  true  statement  from  my  memory  for  the  last  forty-eight  years,  as  it  is 
impossible  for  me  to  tind  any  records  or  dates  I  never  supposed  I  would  have  the  opportunity 
to    put    them    in    writing. 

Written  by  Lorenzo  D.  Harvey,  born  in  the  township  of  Austerlize.  Columbia  county,  N. 
v.,    Sept.    24,    1831.      Written    at    Harvey,    Mich.,    November,    190.S. 


164 


THE    HONORABLE    PETER   WHITE 


timber  land  which  "at 
the  usual  estimation  that 
a  cord  of  wood  will  pro- 
duce 40  bushels  of  char- 
coal of  which  125- 
bushels  will  furnish  fuel 
to  melt  one  ton  of  iron, 
and  assumin^^  that  each 
acre     will     yield     sixty 

THE  OLD   CHARCOAL   KILNS    NEAR  NEGAUNEE.  COrds    of    WOOd,    tllC    COUl- 

pany's  lands  will  furnish  fuel  for  nearly  80,000  tons  of  iron  ore  sufficient  to 

supply  two  stacks  for  ten  years."     The  circular  estimated  that  the  cost  of 

making  iron  w^ould  be  $19.75,  delivered 

at  Chicago,  and  the  cash  price  for  char- 
coal    pig    being    then    $38,    the    profit 

would   be   $18.25    per   ton.        With   this 

very  encouraging  prospect  the  directors 

felt  bold  enough  to  announce  that  they 

intended  to  erect  that  year   (1857)    one 

stack  capable  of  turning  out  ten  to  twelve 

tons  daily. 

The   first   stack   of   the    Pioneer    Iron 

Co.  went  into  blast  in  April,   1858,  and 

the    second    one    in    J\Iay,    1859.        The 

prospects  of  large  dividends,  however,  were  rudely  shattered.     The  annual 

report  issued  in  September,   1859,  stated  that  beside  the  capital  fully  paid 

in    of    $125,000,    a    floating    debt    of    $95,000    had    accumulated    and    that 
;j^'"  the     company     was     losing    money     on 

every  ton  of  iron  turned  out.  The 
quality  of  its  charcoal  iron,  however,, 
was   above    criticism. 

A  number  of  other  furnaces  fol- 
lowed the  Pioneer,  being  located  at 
various  points  with  reference  to  dif- 
ferent advantages  for  the  manufacture 
of  iron,  one  locating  near  a  belt  of 
hardwood,  another  near  a  limestone 
quarry,  a  third  near  an  ore  deposit 
and  a  fourth  to  secure  the  benefit  o£ 
GKEENwooD  FURNACE,  EUH^T  IN  1864.     watcr  privileges. 


MORGAN    FURNACE.    BUILT    IN    1863. 


PIG  IRON  MANUFACTURE  IN  THE  PENINSULA 


165 


The  furnace  history  of  the  upper  pen- 
insula, however,  has  been  one  of  general 
abandonment,  the  Pioneer  being  the  only 
one  of  the  early  furnaces  to  have  sur- 
vived. One  can  wander  into  the  wilder 
portions  of  the  Marquette  range  today 
with  a  feeling  that  no  one  has  ever  pene- 
trated that  portion  of  the  wilderness  and 
suddenly  come  upon  the  remains  of  an 
old  charcoal  furnace  with  its  battery  of 
ruined  kilns,  embankments  and  roadways 
■ — mute  testimonials  of  earnest  but  unre- 
warded effort. 

The  first  canal  at  Sault  Ste.  jMarie  was 


'■'■'"^^.^ 


'*.: 


-^f; 


'f^f 


CLARKSBURG    FURNACE,    BUILT    IN     lS66. 

a  state  aft'air  and  was  under  control  of 
a  Board  of  Control.  It  seems  incredible 
now  but  in  1859  in  the  middle  of  the 
shipping  season  the  board  concluded  to 
close  the  canal  for  two  months,  begin- 
ning with  the  first  of  August,  for  repairs. 
The  three  mining  companies,  the  Cleve- 
land, Jackson  and  Lake  Superior,  made 
common  cause  of  this  and  sent  the  fol- 
'  owing  petition  to  the  board,  which  is 
.■ery  interesting  reading  at  this  time. 


CHAMPION   FURNACE,    BUILT   IN    186/. 

"The  trade  in  Lake  Superior  iron  ore 
is  just  beginning  to  establish  itself  and 
it  possesses  the  elements  of  indefinite  in- 
crease. It  now  occupies  fourth-fifths 
of  the  shipping  employed  on  this 
lake,  and  will  undoubtedly  be  the 
chief  source  of  revenue  to  the 
canal.        The   oresent   season   is   a   most 


MUNISING   FURNACE,    BUILT    IN     1 868. 


166 


THE    HONORABLE    PETER    WHITE 


critical  period  for  this  great  interest.  The  ores  of  Canada  and  Missouri 
have  been  brought  into  close  competition  with  Lake  Superior  ore  and  at 
the  points  of  consumption  of  more  than  four-fifths  of  it  those  ores  meet  our 
own  on  equal  terms  of  facility  of  transportation  and  comparative  cost. 
There  is  no  essential  difference  in  the  purity  of  Missouri  ore  and  our  own — 
the  developm.ent  of  the  former  has  been  stimulated  and  the  cost  of  its 
production  diminished  by  a  state  contribution  of  nearly  $2,000,000  to  the 
railroad  which  transports  it  to  the  river.     The  occupation  of  our  markets 


GRACE    FURNACE,    MARQUETTE,    MICH.,    DESIGNED    FOR    ANTHRACITE    COAL.    EUILT    IN     187I. 

by  the  Missouri  and  Canada  ores  the  present  season  would  be  an  advantage 
which  could  not  be  regained  in  years.  The  low  price  at  which  Lake 
Superior  ore  must  be  offered  at  the  lowest  lake  ports  obviously  limits  its 
production  to  the  amounts  that  can  be  shipped  at  modern  rates  of  freight 
during  the  most  favorable  season  of  navigation.  Of  the  30,000  tons 
shipped  from  this  port  last  year  not  more  than  1,000  tons  were  shipped 
after  October  i.  Its  shipments  must  always  be  principally  by  sailing  vessels, 
because  it  cannot  bear  as  high  rate  of  freiglit,  and  as  it  is  principally  confined 


PIG  IRON  MANUFACTURE  IN  THE  PENINSULA 


167 


to  the  months  of  June,  Jnly,  August  and  September.  After  the  latter 
months  not  only  is  the  navigation  of  Lake  Superior  somewhat  hazardous, 
but  the  advanced  rates  obtainable  for  other  freight  precludes  the  shipment 
of  ore.     The  companies  represented  are  under  engagement  to  supply  this 


PL\X     OF     THF     PIONEER     FURNACE     IN     1857. 


season  some  60.000  tons;  should  the  canal  be  closed  during  two  of  the  above 
months  it  will  be  impossible  for  them  to  furnish  more  than  half  the  quantity, 
and  the  furnaces  which  are  their  customers,  will  supply  the  deficiency  for 
the  winter's  manufacture  with  other  ores.     Not  onlv  would  this  occasion 


168 


THE   HONORABLE    PETER   WHITE 


the  absolute  loss  to  the  canal  revenues  of  the  diminished  amount  of  this 
year's  shipments,  but  the  undue  advantage  thus  obtained  at  a  most  critical 
period  of  the  business,  by  competing  ores,  would  undoubtedly  be  perpetuated 
through  several  years  in  a  comparatively  diminished  demand  for  our  own 
Droduct.     Our  companies  are  the  pioneers  of  the  iron  production  on  Lake 

Superior;  for  ten  years  past  we  have 
been  continually  increasing  our  invest- 
ments and  have  made  expenditures  to 
the  amount  of  more  than  $1,000,000  in 
the  development  of  this  production  with- 
out ever  having  realized  a  dollar  of  divi- 
dends or  returns." 

It  is  gratifying  to  relate  that  the  peti- 
tion of  the  company  was  successful. 
The  common  ore  carrier  was  the  sail- 
ing vessel  and,  as  the  petition  relates, 
vessel  owners  believed  that  ore  would 
always  be  carried  in  them  principally. 
They  were  being  towed  through  the 
rivers,  the  tug  Champion  towing  fre- 
c|uently  as  many  as  seven  or  eight  at  one 
time. 

The  immediate  effect  of  the  break- 
ing out  of  the  war  in  1861  was  an 
added  depression  in  the  iron  business, 
and  it  forced  a  number  of  the  little 
Gay,  who  had  been  instrumental  in  intro- 
ducing blast-furnace  methods  in  the  peninsula  and  under  whose  guidance 
the  Pioneer  furnace  was  built,  had  started  the  Bancroft  furnace  in  i860. 
Peter  White  had  loaned  him  what  little  money  he  had  to  spare,  but  Gay 
was  unable  to  weather  the  storm,  bred  by  the  rebellion,  and  Peter  White 
had  to  step  in  as  secretary  and  treasurer  to  protect  his  own  interests.  He 
was  busily  engaged,  too,  in  organizing  a  company  to  go  to  the  front  and  he 
was  elected  its  captain.  At  this  stage  Marr^uette  protested.  It  felt  that  it 
needed  him  more  than  the  war  required  his  services  and  he  was  persuaded 
not  to  go. 

Marquette  had  now  grown  to  be  a  village  of  nearly  2,000  inhabitants  of 
the  substantial  character.  Peter's  duties  were  growing  upon  him,  and  he 
prepared  to  relinquish  the  office  of  postmaster  which  he  had  held  for  nearly 
a  dozen  years.    He  was,  however,  before  surrendering  the  office,  to  have  an 


L.    n.     HARVEY    AS    HE    IS    TODAY. 


furnaces  to  the  wall.     Stephen  R. 


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170  THE   HONORABLE    PETER   WHITE 

experience  which  remains  with  him  quite  vividly  today.  Wherever  there 
is  wood  chopping  to  be  done  there  is  a  Frenchman  to  be  found.  The 
Canadian-French  went  to  Marquette  in  great  numbers,  for  all  the  furnaces 
were  fed  with  charcoal.  Many  of  them  could  neither  read  nor  write,  but 
nevertheless  they  took  sweet  pleasure  in  letters  from  home.  They  had  num- 
erous legends  of  Peter  White.  They  knew  that  he  had  disappeared  in  years 
gone  by  whenever  the  mail  was  uncommonly  late  and  had  come  back  with 
letters  for  them.  Some  of  the  poor  creatures  thought  that  he  went  as  far 
as  Montreal  for  the  mail.  They  could  not  understand  it  otherwise.  He 
was  a  mysterious  being  to  the  French  and  their  families,  and  was  always 
associated  in  their  minds  with  dogs,  snow  shoes,  sleds  and  Indians. 

In  April  and  May,  when  government  delivery  had  been  regularly  es- 
tablished, the  mails  were  frequently  late  owing  to-  the  deep  snows.  One 
night  a  steamer  arrived,  the  first  of  the  season,  bringing  the  accumulations 
of  a  month  of  mail.  Peter  had  taken  it  to  his  office  and  was  distributing  it 
as  expeditiously  as  possible  by  candlelight,  as  he  knew  that  at  six  o'clock 
in  the  morning  a  large  crowd  would  have  congregated  for  their  letters.  The 
postoffice  was  merely  a  small  room  in  the  rear  of  the  store,  just  large  enough 
for  a  table,  chair  and  the  mail  bags.  Peter  had  dumped  the  mail  upon  the 
table  and  was  standing  distributing  the  letters  into  their  respective  boxes 
when  he  heard  a  slight  noise  in  the  forward  part  of  the  store.  Michel 
Belloin,  a  tall  and  powerful  Frenchman,  was  approaching.  It  needed  but 
one  look  at  Michel  to  observe  that  he  had  been  drinking  heavily. 

"You  got  any  letter  for  Micho,  Monsieur  Pete,"  asked  he,  staggering 
up  to  the  rail. 

"Come  in  the  morning,"  answered  Peter.  'T  am  just  assorting  the 
mail  now." 

'T  guess  I  will  come  into  your  little  poss  offis  and  sit  on  dat  little  chair 
and  see  you  put  dose  lette  in  that  box,"  answered  ^Michel,  and  suiting  the 
action  to  the  word  he  undertook  to  enter  the  narrow  door. 

"There  isn't  room  for  you,"  exclaimed  Peter.  "It  is  against  the  law. 
You  cannot  come  in."  ■    -    , :  ! 

"Oh,  ho!     What  you   "spose   I   care   for  de  law  or  you  neder?     I   will 
come  in  anyhow     You  can't  stop  me." 

As  he  lifted  one  foot  he  stepped  over  a  mail  bag  at  the  door,  Peter  gave 
him  a  quick  push  which  caused  him  to  fall  backward  to  the  floor  and  very 
much  enraged  him.  Arising  he  paced  backward  and  forward  across  the 
store  floor,  grating  his  teeth  and  clenching  his  fists,  calling  Peter  all 
manner  of  names   and   uttering  all   sorts  of  imprecations  and   epithets   in 


PIG  IRON  MANUFACTURE  IN  THE  PENINSULA  171 

French.     Finding  tliat   Peter  was  paying  no  attention  to  him   he  stopped 
at  the  door  of  the  httle  postoffice  and  shouted : 

"You  want  to  preten  you  don  stand  French.  Mon  Dieu,  you  don  talk 
good  HingHsh.  You  just  a  half  a  breed,  half  French  and  half  Hinjin.  I 
know  what  you  want.  You  want  me  to  strike  vou  in  vour  little 
dam  hofis  then  you  bring  me  on  the  justes  hofis  tomorrow  morn- 
ing and  make  me  pay  five  clolar.  Aha !  You  can't  fool  French- 
man like  dat.  You  come  on  to  de  street  if  you  want  me  to 
strike  you.  If  I  strike  yuu  I  won't  leave  two  greas  spot  on  you.  If  I 
strike  you  you  will  think  it  is  a  French  horse  kick  you.  You  see  dat  spit 
down  dere?  The  sun  he  come  he  dry  it  up.  Dat's  just  like  you.  If  I 
strike  you  you  can't  fine  yourself  anymore.  You  wouldn't  know  where  you 
gone  to.  I  come  to  your  poss  hofis  to  'cjuire  for  some  lette,  and  I  hax  you, 
just  so  polite  I  can,  if  you  got  any  lette  for  Micho,  and  you  say  'Get  out,' 
Ain't  you  shame  yourself — don't  you  sorry  you  treat  me  that  way?  I'm 
going  to  tell  you  something  make  you  sorry  that  you  say  so  cross  to  me. 
I  tink  I  will  make  your  face  come  red.  Some  Frenchmen  been  come  here 
good  many  year  ago;  he  ben  tole  me  dat  you  use  to  carry  de  mail  on  your 
back  and  a  pack  on  your  back,  a  hax  in  your  hand,  snow  shoe  on  your  feet 
and  sometime  tree  poor  littel  dog  on  a  train  draw  de  mail  tru  de  woods, 
and  your  tree  littel  dog  was  so  poor  you  could  see  right  tru  him.  (And  here 
the  excited  speaker  held  up  his  hands  with  fingers  widely  distended  to  rep- 
resent the  visible  ribs  of  the  poor  dog.)  Cos  you  was  so  damn  poor.  You 
didn  have  money  to  buy  provision  for  dat  dog.  Now  you  got  to  be  the  pos 
hofis  master  and  _\ou  tink  )ou  are  the  biggest  big  bug  on  dis  town — and  when 
I  come  to  your  poss  hofis  just  so  polite  I  can  and  hax  you  you  got  any  lette 
for  Micho,  you  say  'Get  out  dar'  like  one  dam  dog.  I  like  to  know  if  dat's 
the  way  to  treat  a  gentleman.  I  guess  vou  didn't  tot  dat  I  know  I  could 
tell  you  all  dat.     You  tink  now  you  biggest  big  bug  on  this  whole  town." 


CHAPTER  XVH. 


PETER  WHITE  AS  A  BUSINESS   MAN. 

"^TN    1862   the   Cleveland   and   Jackson    iron   companies   declared   their   first 

dividend  and  in  1863  Peter  White  incorporated  his  bank  into  a  National 

bank,    calling    it    the    P'irst    National    Bank    of    Marquette.      The    national 

bankinq;  law  was  then  a  little  more  than  a  vear  old.     He  induced  Samuel 

P.  Ely  to  accept  the  presidency  while  he  himself  became  the  cashier.    Mean- 


VILLAGE    OF    MARQUETTE    ABOUT     1851. 

while  he  was   selling  off   and   on   a  little   iron   to   vesselmen.       When  no 

other  freights  offered,  vesselmen  were  in  the  habit  of  buying  a  little  iron 

in  the  hope  that  they  could  sell  it  for  a  few  dollars  extra  at  the  lower  lake 

: ports  and  thus  earn. a  fair  freight  rate  for  the  trip.     If  iron  could  be  bought 


PETER  WHITE  AS  A  BUSINESS  MAN 


173" 


at  $15  at  Marquette  and  sold  for  $20  at  a  lower  lake  port  there  was  fair  re- 
muneration in  it  for  the  vessel  owner. 

Peter  had  come  into  possession  of  considerable  iron  through  his  con- 
nection with  the  Bancroft  furnace  and  he  had  disposed  of  it  gradually  to 
vessels  as  they  called  at  ]\Iarquette.  There  are  some  men  wdio  are  gifted 
with  prophetic  vision.  Possibly  it  is  only  reasoning  power  developed  to  the 
highest  sense.  Grant  was  slowly  but  surely  hemming  the  Confederate  armies  • 
in  and  the  country  was  assuming  a  healthier  and  more  normal  tone.  All 
at  once  it  dawned  upon  Peter  White  that  the  nation  would  need  iron  and 
that  the  foundries  and  mills  were  going  to  be  caught  without  an  adequate-" 


MARQUETTE    DOCKS    AND    SHIPPING    ABOUT    1861. 


supply  of  their  raw  material — pig  iron — on  h.and  when  the  demand  came. 
He  packed  his  grip  and  started  on  the  track  of  vessels  to  which  he  had 
been  selling  iron  for  months  previously.  He  found  a  quantity  of  his  own 
iron  on  several  of  the  docks,  particularly  Detroit,  and  he  bought  it  back  at 
an  advance  of  $6  per  ton  over  the  price  at  which  he  had  sold  it — surely  a 
good  profit  for  the  vessel  man.  He  bought  all  that  he  could  find  upon 
this  trip,  and  then  he  went  to  Cleveland.     Almost  before  he  got  there  the 


174  THE   HONORABLE    PETER   WHITE 

demand  came,  greatly  stimulated  by  heavy  orders  from  the  government  for 
guns  and  railway  equipment. 

"Want  any  pig-  iron  ?"  asked  Peter  White,  walking  into  the  office  of  the 
Otis  Foundry  Co.  in  Cleveland. 

"I  should  say  we  do,"  replied  Otis,  "and  I'll  pay  $42  a  ton  for  it  if  I  can 
get  any." 

Peter  sold  1,000  tons  at  that  figure  before  the  day  was  done.  He  had 
paid  $24  a  ton  for  it.  In  tw^o  weeks  he  had  cleared  $35,000.  He  kept  mighty 
still  about  it,  though.  He  had  the  shrewdness  to  know  that  it  is  good  policy 
to  keep  still  when  you're  making  money  and  to  keep  still  when  you're  losing 
money.  For  the  charcoal  iron  of  the  Bancroft  furnace  he  received  before 
the  year  was  out  $85,  $90  and  $95  per  ton  according  to  the  various  grades, 
the  highest  figure  iron  has  ever  reached  in  the  history  of  the  country.  It 
was  these  transactions  in  iron  which  laid  the  foundation  of  Peter  White's 
fortune. 

The  iron  companies  by  this  time  got  fairly  upon  their  feet  and  were 
returning  handsome  dividends  upon  the  capital  invested.  The  Lake  Superior 
region  had.  however,  scarcely  been  scratched.  The  shipments  of  1,449  ^^^^^ 
in  1855  had  increased  to  114,401  tons  in  i860  but  had  fallen  to  49,909  tons 
in  1861  upon  the  outbreak  of  the  civil  war.  They  reached  the  total  of 
243,127  tons  in  1864  showing  a  decided  revival  in  the  iron  trade.  The  iron 
resources  of  Lake  Superior  were  never  carried  forward  as  a  mere  specula- 
tion but  as  a  legitimate  business  enterprise,  to  which  fact  is  probably  due 
the  scant  recognition  that  the  industry  received  in  the  newspapers  of  the 
day.  It  is  doubtful  whether  the  existence  of  the  companies  was  known  on 
the  stock  exchanges  of  New  York  and  Boston.  It  may  seem  surprising 
at  this  day,  now  that  we  know  so  much  of  what  the  iron  companies  actually 
possessed  that  the  financial  part  of  the  enterprise  should  have  been  in 
doubt.  But  it  was,  and  seriously  so.  Time  was  the  asset  which  all  of  these 
iron  companies  needed. 

One  Sunday  afternoon  in  1864  Peter  White  was  down  at  the  dock 
watching  the  unloading  of  a  steamer  which  had  just  arrived.  A  distin- 
guished-looking gentleman  approached  him.  who  turned  out  to  be  none 
other  than  Mr.  Breckenridge,  the  vice-president  of  the  Confederacy,  and 
who  had  just  been  placed  upon  parole  upon  his  honor.  He  was  enroute 
for  Canadian  territory  with  a  party  of  Southern  gentlemen  upon  a  hunting 
expedition  and  telling  Peter  White  that  he  had  just  been  informed  that  he 
was  the  banker  of  the  town,  asked  him  if  he  would  let  him  have  gold  for 
his  paper  currency. 


PETER  WHITE  AS  A  BUSINESS  MAN 


175 


Peter  \\'hite  instantly  took  the  vice-president  of  the  Confederacy  to  his 
bank  building,  and,  unlocking  the  door  with  his  private  key,  entered.  The 
teller.  \\\w  had  a  room  overhead,  was  seated  in  the  bank  reading.  Peter 
introduced  his  distinguished  companion,  and  stating  his  mission  recjuested 
the  teller  to  open  the  door  to  the  vault.  To  the  intense  astonishment  of  the 
vice-president  of  the  Confederacy,  and  no  less  to  that  of  Peter  White  him- 
self, the  teller  refused  to  do  anything  of  the  kind. 

'T  do  not  beHeve,"  said  he.  "that  business  of  any  character  whatever 


MARQUETTE    HARBOR    IX     1863,    SHOWING    THE    TYPE    OF    ORE    CARRIER    PREVAILING    AT    THAT 

TIME. 


should  be  transacted  on  Sunday.     This  gentleman  can  doubtless  wait  until 
tomorrow  morning." 

Mr.  Breckenridge  explained  that  his  steamer  was  to  leave  that  very 
afternoon  and  that,  unfortunately,  he  could  not  wait.  He  added  that  he 
would  not  have  sought  the  favor  had  it  been  possible  for  him  to  wait  un- 
til the  morrow.  It  became  Cjuite  clear,  however,  that  the  teller's  religious 
scruples  were  too  deeplv  rooted  to  be  disturbed  bv  the  plight  of  the  vice- 


176  THE    HONORABLE    PETER    WHITE 

president  of  the  Confederacy.  The  more  they  argued  the  more  resolute 
he  grew. 

"A'ery  well,"  said  Peter,  "write  the  number  of  the  combination  on  a 
piece  of  paper  and  I  will  open  the  safe.  You  can  just  scribble  the  figures 
in  an   absent-minded   way." 

"That  would  be  equivalent  to  opening  the  safe,"  replied  the  teller. 
"It  would  be  merely  whipping  the  devil  around  the  stump.  I  cannot  trans- 
act business  on  Sunday,  either  directly  or  indirectly.  I  decline  to  give  you 
the  com.bination  of  the  safe." 

Most  men  would  have  exploded  and  Peter  White  is  not  to  be  blamed  if 
his  color  heightened  a  bit.     But  he  said  nothing. 

"I  believe  I  can  get  the  money  elsewhere,"  he  said,  turning  to  jNIr. 
Breckenridge  and  leading  the  way  out  of  the  bank. 

He  secured  the  gold  from  a  friend  and  Breckenridge  went  on  his  way 
rejoicing.  The  next  morning  the  teller  entered  Peter  White's  private  of- 
fice and  tendered  his  resignation. 

"T  don't  suppose,"  said  he,  "that  you  will  have  any  further  use  for  my 
services." 

Peter  White  tore  up  the  letter  of  resignation. 

"I  am  not  going  to  discharge  you  for  sticking  to  your  principles,"  said 
he.  "I  couldn't  discharge  any  man  for  defending  his  conviction.  I  would 
not,  however,  have  acted  as  you  did.  I  don't  believe  you  displayed  good 
judgment." 

A  little  later  when  the  teller  wanted  to  go  into  business  for  himself 
Peter  White  gave  him  $10,000  without  securitv. 


CHAPTER  XVIII. 

SOLVING   THE    PROBLEM  OF  UNLOADING  ORE. 

TT  was  in  1865  that  the  Peninsula  Raih-oad  Co.  organized  by  Chicago  and 
New  York  capitaHsts  as  a  part  of  the  Chicago  &  Northwestern  system, 
was  extended  from  Escanaba  on  Green  Bay  to  the  iron  mines  of  Ishpem- 
ing  and  Negaunee,  a  distance  of  62  miles,  thus  affording  another  outlet 
for  the  shipment  of  ore  through  the  Straits  of  Mackinac. 

It  was  during  this  year  also  that  George  B.  Stuntz  concluded  that 
he  would  pay  some  attention  to  what  Joe  Posey  had  been  telling  him. 
Stuntz  had  gone  to  the  Lake  Superior  country  in  1852  and  settled  in  the 
village  of  Superior.  There  was  no  Duluth  in  those  days.  Posey  was  a 
woodsman  and  had  gone  all  through  the  region  north  of  Lake  Superior 
on  the  trail  which  for  a  hundred  years  had  been  traveled  by  the  traders 
and  guides  of  the  fur  companies.  In  the  course  of  his  travels  through 
the  north,  Posey  had  crossed  Vermilion  Lake  and  had  seen  what  he  took 
to  be  great  mineral  outcroppings  on  its  eastern  side.  Stuntz,  who  knew 
of  the  Marquette  development,  thought  it  possible  that  the  iron  formation 
might  be  repeated.  It  was  in  October,  1865,  that  Stuntz  left  Superior 
with  Indian  canoe  men  and  guides  for  Vermilion  Lake.  It  was  not  the 
three-hour  trip  that  it  is  to-day  over  a  solid  railway  but  a  weary  tramp 
of  weeks.  There  is  the  portage  from  the  Fond  du  Lac,  "the  head  of  the 
lake"  around  the  rapids  of  the  St.  Louis  river,  a  scramble  of  nearly  ten 
miles  through  brush  and  over  windfalls,  then  a  canoe  ride  of  nearly  lOO' 
miles  along  the  swift  and  black  St.  Louis,  a  portage  of  five  miles  across 
to  Pike  river  and  a  further  voyage  of  30  miles  along  the  watershed  before 
the  southern  end  of  Vermilion  lake  was  reached.  Curiously  enough  in 
traversing  this  watershed  he  was  crossing  the  greatest  ore  body  in  the 
world — Mesabi — but  he  had  no  knowledge  then  of  the  wealth  beneath 
his  feet.  Stuntz  found  two  outcroppings  where  Posey  had  indicated, 
one  of  which  later  became  the  Lee  mine  and  the  other  the  Breitung  pit. 
He  broke  ofif  60  pounds  of  it  with  sledges,  a  beautiful  specular  hematite, 
which  his  party  had  to  shoulder  together  with  their  supplies  for  a  weary 


1/8 


THE   HONORABLE    PETER    WHITE 


tramp  back  to  Superior,  for  the  rivers  by  that  time  had  all  frozen.  Stuntz's 
attempts  to  interest  capital  were  futile,  as  the  distance  was  considered 
too  great.     Vermilion  was  not  to  be  developed  then. 

The  Cleveland  Company's  dock  at  IVIarquette  with  its  ore  pocket 
was  loading  the  little  schooners  with  considerable  dispatch,  but  the  prob- 
lem of  unloading  the  vessels  at  Cleveland  and  other  Lake  Erie  ports  by 
means  of  a  horse,  hoisting  the  ore  out  of  the  hold  with  blocks  and  tackle 
was  extremely  slow  and  tedious  work.  The  firm  of  Bothwell  &  Ferris, 
which  operated  the  Nypano  docks  (now  the  Erie  railway),  in  the  old  river 


THE      SCHOOXKK      JAMES      V.     JuV. 

This  vessel  was  owned  by  tlic   late  George  \V.   Bissell,   of   Detroit,   and   was   the 
sjreatest  carrier  on  the  lakes  when  she  was  built  in  1866. 


bed  at  Cleveland,  usually  employed  about  forty  horses  in  the  work  of 
unloading  the  schooners.  The  horses  pulled  the  tubs  to  the  deck  of  the 
schooner  and  the  ore  was  then  dumped  into  barrows  and  wheeled  ashore. 
It  ordinarily  took  two  days  and  more  to  unload  a  cargo  of  400  tons  which 
was  accounted  a  considerable  cargo  in  those  days.  One  day  in  the  spring 
of   T867   J.   D.   Bothwell,   who  was   watching   a   small   engine   lifting   piles 


SOLVING  THE  PROBLEM  OF  UNLOADING  ORE  179 

into  the  air  preparatory  to  driving  them  into  the  river  bed,  conceived  the 
idea  that  an  engine  of  somewhat  similar  design,  could  also  hoist  the  ore 
from  the  holds  of  the  vessels.  He  approached  Robert  Wallace,  of  Wal- 
lace, Pankhnrst  &  Co.,  with  the  idea,  and  Wallace  at  once  designed 
and  built  a  little  portable  6  x  12  engine,  fastened  to  the  side  of  the  boiler. 
It  could  be  moved  about  the  dock  to  any  desired  position  and  could  per- 
form the  same  work  which  the  horses  were  doing.  After  the  engine  had 
teen  installed  the  first  vessel  to  come  along  was  the  bark  Massillon,  under 
■command  of  Capt.  Smith  Moore,  with  a  full  cargo  of  400  tons.  When 
Smith  saw  the  queer  little  thing  moving  to  its  position  alongside  the 
v^essel  he  inquired  for  what  purpose  it  was  being  placed  there,  and  upon 
teing  told  that  it  was  for  the  purpose  of  unloading  his  vessel,  he  swore 
roundly.  It  is  on  record  that  he  strode  the  deck  of  the  Massillon  in  a 
towering  rage  and  demanded  with  energetic  and  eloquent  profanity  that 
the  horses  be  substituted  on  the  ground  that  he  did  not  want  to  remain 
in  port  during  the  balance  of  the  week.  Notwithstanding  Smith's  protest 
the  Massillon  was  the  first  ore  vessel  to  be  unloaded  by  machinery.  The 
little  engine  proved  to  be  much  more  expeditious  in  its  work  than  the 
horses,  for  before  the  day  was  done  the  bark  was  vuiloaded.  Smith's 
anger  faded  as  he  saw  the  little  engine  bend  to  its  work,  and  was  delighted 
to  find  that  he  was  ready  to  leave  that  very  evening.  Bothwell  &  Ferris 
paid  Wallace,  Pankhurst  &  Co.,  $1,200  for  the  engine.  It  was  the  means 
of  making  the  firm  of  Bothwell  &  Ferris  rich,  for  they  were  enabled  to 
do  the  work  quicker  and  cheaper,  and  as  their  contract  with  the  railway 
was  based  upon  a  fixed  percentage  of  the  tonnage  handled,  quickness  and 
cheapness  meant  a  double  advantage  to  them.  The  little  engine  created 
a  furore  along  Lake  Erie  docks  and  Wallace,  Pankhurst  &  Co.  received 
orders  for  nine  of  them  immediately  thereafter. 

"It  meant  a  big  boost  in  our  business  too,"  said  Robert  Wallace, 
telling  the  story.  "I  remember  what  a  mighty  big  thing  those  contracts 
seemed  to  us — and  to  have  nine  of  them,  one  right  after  the  other.  It 
literally  put  us  on  our  feet." 

These  little  engines  did  no  more  than  to  haul  the  ore  to  the  decks  in 
tubs,  from  which  it  was  dumped  into  barrows  and  wheeled  ashore  on 
the  runway.  The  little  engine  operated  three  strands  of  rope  fall,  hoisting 
from  the  hold  of  the  boat  three  tubs  of  ore  at  one  time.  In  the  hold  there 
were  two  shovelers  and  a  sharacker  to  each  shovel.  The  sharacker  was  paid 
by  the  shoveler  one-third  of  his  wages.  On  the  runway  above  there  was  a 
wheeler  and  dtunper  who  took  care  of  the  lines  and  gave  the  signal  to  the 
engineer  to  hoist  the  tub  out  of  the  hold.     The    tub    was    dumped    by   the 


SOLVING  THE  PROBLEM   OF  UNLOADING  ORE  181 

wheeler  and  dumper  into  the  barrow  and  wheeled  out  on  the  runway  on 
wooden  horses  to  the  ore  pile  on  dock  and  dumped.  There  were  three 
wheelers  and  one  dumper  to  each  hatch  of  the  boat.  This  method  of  unload- 
ing continued  for  nearly  fifteen  years  thereafter. 

Marquette  in  its  center  slopes  gently  to  the  lake  and  both  east  and  west 
the  descent  is  abrupt.  The  western  part  is  known  as  the  Ridge,  a  most  ap- 
propriate name,  since  it  is  both  rugged  and  high.  It  commands  a  view  of 
the  entire  city,  the  beautiful  Presque  Isle  and  a  vast  expanse  of  the  waters 
of  Lake  Superior,  sometimes  turbulent  and  sometimes  as  placid  as  a  pond. 
It  was  upon  this  ridge,  directly  overlooking  the  lake,  that  Peter  White 
secured  thirteen  acres  of  land  and  in  1867  built  the  house  which  is  his 
home  to  this  day.     It  is  the  most  splendid  residence  in  Marquette. 

In  1868  the  town  of  Marquette  was  burned  to  the  ground,  but  Peter 
White's  house  on  the  ridge  was  not  a  part  of  the  catastrophe.  The  only 
thing  of  a  business  kind  saved  was  the  Cleveland  dock.  Among  the  ruins 
was  the  plant  of  the  Mining  Journal,  owned  by  Peter  White.  He  sold  the 
good  will  and  subscription  list  to  A.  P.  Swineford  for  $100.  There  was 
little  else  to  sell  at  that  moment,  but  even  at  that  it  was  a  great  bargain. 
Swineford  resurrected  the  remains  and  made  a  good  paper  out  of  it. 

Peter  White  had  now  grown  to  be  an  influential  citizen  and  was 
clearly  and  unmistakably  the  first  man  in  Marquette.  He  succeeded 
to  the  presidency  of  the  First  National  Bank  in  1869,  which  office  he  has 
held  continuously  since.  As  banker,  real  estate  agent  and  capitalist  he  was  in- 
variably consulted  when  any  new  enterprise  was  started  in  the  town.  If  it 
was  worthy  he  encouraged  it  by  a  personal  investment,  and  by  this  policy 
he  both  made  and  lost  money. 

"I  have  bought,"  said  he  in  later  years,  "considerable  stock  in  various 
•companies,  but  I  have  never  sold  a  share  in  any  of  them.  Some  have  been 
good  and  some  have  been  very  bad,  but  on  the  whole  I  have  come  out  a  lit- 
tle ahead.  At  any  rate,  by  this  policy  I  am  sure  that  no  person  has  ever 
lost  any  money  through  me." 

He  also  started  a  general  insurance  business  with  special  reference  to 
marine  insurance,  both  hull  and  cargo,  which  later  became  extensive. 

In  1869  the  first  steamer  to  be  designed  for  ore  carrying  purposes 
exclusively  was  built  by  Peck  &  Masters,  of  Cleveland.  This  was  the 
R.  J.  Hackett,  and  she  was  built  to  carry  the  ore  of  the  Jackson  mine. 
The  Hackett  was  211  ft.  long  and  33  ft.  beam.  The  following  year  the 
Forest  City  was  built  as  her  consort.  The  Forest  City  was  213  ft.  long 
and  23  ft.  beam.  The  system  of  propeller  and  consort  grew  in  popularity 
and  gradually  displaced  the  crude  sailing  vessel.     It  abolished  the  profit- 


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SOLVING  THE  PROBLEM   OF  UNLOADING  ORE 


183 


able  business  of  towing  up  and  down  the  rivers  which  the  tugs  had  en- 
joyed. To  counteract  it  the  tugs  would  occasionally  tow  the  sailing  ves- 
sels all  the  way  from  lower  to  upper  lake  ports  and  back,  but  this  effort 
was  only  temporary,  the  sailing  vessels  gradually  abandoning  their  inde- 
pendent existence  and  becoming  consorts  to  steamers  themselves. 

When  the  town  of  Marquette  was  incorporated  and  was  entitled  to 
have  a  mayor  the  people  turned  instinctively  to  Peter  White.  He  consented 
to  run.  He  was  a  Democrat  in  principle  and  is  so  yet,  but  he  severed  his 
affiliation  with  the  party  when  it  seemed  willing  to  make  a  sacrificial  of- 
fering of  the  financial  credit  of  the  country  upon  the  altar  of  free  silver  a 


THE   STEAMER   v.    H.    KETCHUM,  I^AUNCHED  TN   1 874. 

VESSEL   ON   THE   LAKES. 


SHE  WAS  THE  LARGEST 


few  years  ago.  Now  envy  is  one  of  human  nature's  frailties,  and  when 
Peter  White  consented  to  run  for  mayor  a  certain  number  got  together  and 
nominated  a  rival  candidate.  Peter  White  made  no  campaign  and  neither 
did  his  supporters ;  but  the  opposition  worked  night  and  day.  They  toured 
the  highways  and  byways  incessantly,  and  when  the  votes  were  counted  it 
was  found  that  the  opposition  had  elected  their  candidate  by  a  majority  of 
sixty-one.  Great  was  the  indignation  of  Marquette.  They  felt  that  an 
outrage  had  been  committed.     The  successful  candidate  was  fearfully  mor- 


184 


THE   HONORABLE    PETER   WHITE 


tified  over  the  result.  He  declared  that  he  went  into  the  contest  as  a  joke 
and  that  he  would  not  have  gone  into  it  at  all  if  he  had  had  the  remotest 
idea  that  he  was  going  to  be  elected.  He  implored  Peter  White  to  take 
the  office  and  when  Peter  White  declined  he  actually  wept.  Four  years 
later  when  Peter  White  was  out  of  town  he  was  unanimously  elected  mayor 
of  Marquette.  This  is  probably  the  only  instance  on  record  where  a  man 
obtained  a  mayoralty  without  a  single  dissenting  vote.  But  he  sent  in  his 
declination  by  wire.    And  so  he  never  has  been  mayor  of  the  town. 

A  lasting  friendship  was  formed  between  Peter  White  and  Samuel  P. 
Ely,  and  when  Mr.  Ely  was  elected  mayor  of  Marquette  in  1872,  Peter 
White  commemorated  his  administration  by  building  a  library  and  dedi- 


THE  WOODEN  FLEET  IN   SHELTER  AT   SAND  BEACH — A  SCENE  OF  TWENTY  YEARS   AGO. 


eating  it  to  the  city.  It  was  a  small  affair  but  it  was  the  germ  of  a  splendid 
structure.  A  little  later  he  presented  to  the  city  ten  thousand  volumes  from 
his  own  private  library. 

In  1874  the  steamer  V.  H.  Ketchum  was  built  at  Marine  City,  and 
thousands  gathered  to  see  her  go  overboard,  for  she  was  20  feet  longer 
than  anything  afloat  and  was  regarded  as  a  floating  monster.  She  was, 
in  fact,  far  in  advance  of  dock  facilities,  and  though  she  was  not  profitable 
at  first  she  subsequently  earned  fortunes  for  her  owners.  The  Ketchum 
was  233  ft.  long,  41  ft,  beam  and  24  ft.  deep. 


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186  THE   HONORABLE   PETER   WHITE 

In  1875  a  number  of  Detroit  capitalists  began  to  project  a  railway  from 
St.  Ignace  to  Marquette,  under  the  title  of  the  Detroit,  Mackinaw  &  Mar- 
quette Railway,  and  Peter  White  w-as  again  sent  to  the  legislature  to  see 
about  the  grant  to  aid  in  the  development  of  this  enterprise.  Upon  this  oc- 
casion he  went  to  the  senate.  His  influence  was  felt  instantly  and  irresistibly. 
It  had  been  nearly  twenty  years  since  he  had  made  the  trip  to  Lansing  on 
snow  shoes,  but  the  memory  of  it  had  not  been  forgotten.  This  time  he  went 
by  railway.  Through  his  effort  the  projected  railway  became  an  assured 
undertaking  and  the  people  of  Marquette  went  out  to  meet  him  upon  his  re- 
turn from  the  senate.  A  delegation  endeavored  to  intercept  his  train  at 
a  little  railway  station  about  twenty  miles  from  Marquette,  but  these  he  suc- 
cessfully evaded.  Not  so  at  the  railway  station  at  Marquette,  however.  The 
whole  town  had  congregated  there  to  greet  him  and  the  enthusiasm  was  un- 
bounded. Amid  laughter,  shouting,  fireworks  and  general  rejoicing  they 
unhitched  the  horses  from  his  sleigh  and  drew  him  to  his  home. 

Meanwhile  George  B.  Stuntz  was  endeavoring  to  interest  capital  in 
the  iron  ore  deposits  near  Vermilion  Lake,  which  he  had  discovered  ten 
years  previously.  He  induced  W.  W.  Spalding  of  Ontonagon  and  George  C. 
Stone  of  Duluth  to  look  into  the  deposits.  They  took  with  them  A.  H. 
Chester,  professor  of  geology  in  Hamilton  college.  These  men  went  to 
examine  what  had  been  reported  to  Spalding  as  an  immense  iron  deposit 
south  and  east  of  Vermilion  lake.  It  may  be  noted  that  this  w'as  the  first 
examination  for  iron  ore  ever  made  upon  the  iron  range  which  has  since 
become  the  wonder  of  the  world — Mesabi — and  the  fact  that  it  was  made 
upon  a  part  of  the  range  which  has  so  far  proved  of  no  real  value  does  not 
militate  against  the  enterprise.  Stuntz  endeavored  to  lead  Chester  to  his 
former  finds  upon  Vermilion  lake  but  the  latter  was  skeptical.  He  did, 
however,  furnish  Stuntz  two  Indians  and  a  keg  of  powder.  Stuntz  soon 
found  his  old  location,  commenced  drilling  and  shot  the  first  blast  in  the 
history  of  iron  mining  in  Alinnesota.  What  with  digging  and  blasting  they 
broke  off  about  sixty  tons  of  ore  which,  it  was  afterwards  found,  ran  from 
65  to  66  per  cent  in  iron  of  Bessemer  quality.  Prof.  Chester,  who  was  at 
work  upon  the  Mesabi,  was  at  once  summoned  and  was  astonished  at  the 
result. 


:188  THE    HONORABLE    PETER   WHITE 

"Why,"  said  he,  "with  three  men  you  have  obtained  more  ore  than  I 
have  found  down  there  with  twenty-two  men." 

Ahhough  this  excellent  showing  w^as  made  and  although  Stuntz  called 
Chester's  attention  to  finds  further  east  at  what  later  became  the  Breitung 
-pit,  the  capitalists  backing  Chester  were  so  discouraged  at  the  poor  showing 
on  the  other  range  that  nothing  was  done.  Vermilion  was  not  even  to  be 
•opened  then. 

Another  iron  ore  district  was  undergoing  exploration,  however,  and  was 
presently  to  become  an  important  factor.     Why  the  Alenominee,  lying  con- 
tiguous to  the  Marquette  range,  should  have  remained  so  long  unknown  is 
not  readily  understandable  nowadays  but  it  was  doubtless  influenced  by  an 
impression   then   prevalent   that    iron   ore    in   paying   qualities   was    not   to 
be  found  in  districts  whose  geological  formation  did  not  correspond  with  that 
-of  the  Marquette  range.     Certainly  tract  after  tract,  from  w^hich  millions 
of  tons  of  ore  have  since  been  won,  was  stripped  of  its  standing  pine  and 
abandoned.    Even  the  experts  in  locating  the  lands  of  the  St.  Mary's  Canal 
Company  unsuspectingly  released  many  valuable  deposits  wdiich  had  been 
withdrawn  from  the  market  until  the  company  had  completed  its  selection. 
■One  of  these  was  the  Ouinnesec  mine,  the  outcropping  of  which  was  dis- 
covered in  the  fall  of  1871,  by  John  L.  Buell  in  company  with  John  Arm- 
strong, on  a  tract  which  had  been  entered  by  Sales  &  Lasier  in  1864,  but 
which  had  been  cancelled  to  allow  the  canal  company  to  complete  its  selec- 
tion.    It  was  not  until  the  spring  of  1873  that  the  title  to  this  tract  was  re- 
stored to  Sales  &  Lasier  and  in  May  of  that  year  Buell  resumed  his  ex- 
plorations with  a  force  of  fifteen  men.    A  deposit  of  blue  ore  was  struck  on 
Aug.  3.     In  the  spring  and  summer  of  1874  fifty-five  tons  of  it  was  hauled 
to  Menominee  on  sleds  and  wagons  and  smelted  in  the  furnace  there  with  a 
mixture  of  Jackson  hard  ore  and  Winthrop.     Robert  Jackson,  superintend- 
ent of  the  furnace,  tried  the  last  charge  with  ^Menominee  ore  alone,  working 
it  successfully  and  proving  its  tractability.     This  was  the  first  practical  test 
of   Menominee  range  ore  and   development  was   rapid  thereafter.      It  be- 
came a  regular  shipper  in  1877  and  has  been  an  increasingly  valuable  source 
•  of  mineral  wealth  since.     The  Menominee  range  lies  in  the  northern  part 


SOLVING  THE  PROBLEM  OF  UNLOADING  ORE 


189' 


of  Menominee  county  and  the  southern  part  of  Marquette  county  in  Mich- 
igan, extending  also  into  the  adjoining  county  of  Florence  in  the  state  of 
Wisconsin. 

In  1876  Peter  White  estab- 
lished his  reputation  as  a  stump 
speaker  by  campaigning  in  the 
peninsula  in  behalf  of  Samuel  J. 
Tilden,  who  was  the  democratic 
nominee  for  president  of  the 
United  States.  Peter  White's 
friendship  for  him  began  in  1864, 
when  Mr.  Tilden  became  identi- 
fied with  the  iron  mines  of  the 
peninsula,  and  no  more  active 
campaign  was  ever  waged  in  that 
section  of  the  country  than  ]Mr. 
White  waged  for  the  friend 
whom  he  has  always  believed  was 
elected  to  the  great  office  of 
president. 

Two  ranges  were  now  contrib- 
utors to  the  stream  of  ore  going 
down  the  lakes.  Vessels  were 
gradually  growing  larger  and 
more  numerous,  but  the  meth- 
od of  unloading  had  actually  made  no  progress  since  Robert  Wallace 
installed  his  little  portable  engines  on  the  docks.  Vessels  were  being  un- 
loaded by  means  of  the  wheelbarrow  and  gang  plank  with  infinite  toil  and 
delay.  Alexander  E.  Brown,  a  young  man  of  great  mechanical  ingenuity,, 
saw  in  the  situation  a  most  attractive  engineering  problem  and  from 
a  knowledge  of  the  business  gained  in  the  office  of  his  father,  Fayette  Brown, 
he  was  aware  that  it  possessed  indefinite  commercial  possibilities.  In  i88o 
he  directed  his  inventive  powers  to  the  problem  with  the  result  that  he 
developed  a  system  of  hoisting  and  conveying  by  machinery  that  has  since 
been  brought  to  a  high  state  of  efficiency.  The  first  Brown  machine  was 
established  on  the  Erie  dock  at  the  foot  of  Pearl  street  and  the  old  river  bed. 
It  was  popularly  called  the  old  Tom  Collins.     It  was  a  single  cable-worked 


ALEXANDER    E.    BROWN. 


190 


THE    HONORABLE    PETER   WHITE 


rig,  the  stop  being  subject  to  lowering  and  dumping  the  bucket.  There 
were  five  rigs  with  the  machinery  all  in  one  house.  The  bucket  was  filled  by 
hand  shoveling.    The  Tom  Collins  and  the  Brown  hoist,  which  succeeded  it 

on  the  Erie  docks,  containing  three 
workins:  legs  on  each  hoist,  served  the 
combined  purpose  of  direct  transfer 
from  vessels  to  cars,  transfer  from 
vessels  to  storage  and  reloading  from 
storage  to  cars.  This  development 
on  the  part  of  ]\Ir.  Brown  of  high  hoist- 
ing and  conveying  speeds  produced 
reallv  remarkable  results  and  reduced 
the  time  greatly  for  unloading ;  but 
nevertheless  the  fact  that  the  tubs  had 
still  to  be  filled  by  hand  and  that  the 
loads  were  relatively  small  militated 
seriously  against  large  hourly  ca- 
pacities in  unloading.  The  time  for 
unloading,  however,  was  materially 
reduced  by  nesting  or  grouping  these 
machines  so  that  ore  could  be  taken 
from  all  hatches  simultaneously.  Dur- 
ing the  winter  of  1882  Robert  Aspin 
established  on  the  docks  of  the  Illi- 
nois Steel  Co.  at  South  Chicago  the 
Champion  ore  hoist.  The  machines  went  into  operation  at  the  opening  of 
navigation  in  1883  and  were  the  first  ore  unloading  machines  to  be  used  on 
Lake  Michigan.* 

*Robert  Aspin,  popularly  known  as  "Bob"  Aspin,  was  a  man  of  many  parts.  His  life 
was  an  exceedingly  interesting  one.  He  was  born  at  St.  Johns,  Newfoundland,  and  early  turned 
to  the  sea  to  gain  his  livelihood.  He  had  circumnavigated  the  globe  before  he  was  out  of  his 
teens.  Being  e.xtremely  fond  of  adventure,  he  joined  the  British  navy  and  served  throughout 
the  Crimean  war  with  distinction.  He  became  a  lake  sailor  in  the  sixties  and  settled  in  Chicago 
some  time  before  the  fire  of  1871.  When  the  North  Chicago  rolling  mills  were  established  he 
was  one  of  the  first  men  to  be  employed  and  remained  with  the  company  until  1879.  He  was 
then  transferred  to  South  Chicago,  where  the  Illinois  Steel  Co.  had  erected  a  little  plant,  and  was 
given  charge  of  the  design  and  construction  of  its  docks.  The  chief  problem  was  the  unloading 
of  ore  and  to  this  Mr.  Aspin  gave  his  undivided  attention.  He  evolved  the  Champion  ore  hoist, 
the  general  plan  of  which  is  w^ell  portrayed  in  the  accompanying  drawing  and  photograph.  So 
well  did  it  answer  its  purpose  that  it  was  not  superseded  at  the  south  docks  of  the  Illinois  Steel 
Co.  until  1906,  when  Hoover  &  Mason  grabs  were  erected  there.  The  Champion  hoists  are  still 
in  use  at  tlie  docks  of  the  International  Harvester  Co.  at  South  Chicago.  Mr.  Aspin  was  for 
twenty-five  years  the  superintendent  of  docks  for  the  Illinois  Steel  Co.  He  died  in  August, 
1906.      His   son,    Robert    .\si)in,  is    superintendent    of   docks    for   the    National    Tube    Co.    at    Lorain. 


ROBERT   ASPIN. 


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192 


THE    HONORABLE   PETER   WHITE 


It  was  in  1880,  that  Geo.  C.  Stone  succeeded  in  interesting  Charle- 
magne Tower,  Sr.,  and  others  in  the  VermiHon  district,  and  a  second 
report  was  requested  from  Chester.  Tower  comprehended  the  situation  im- 
mediately and  took  hold  of  it  with  vigor.  Sioux  scrip  was  laid  on  the 
land  and  the  development  of  what  was  later  known  as  the  Minnesota  mine 
began.  They  made  one  of  the  greatest  surface  showings  ever  known  in  an 
iron  ore  location.     The  next  year  the  construction  of  the  Duluth  &  Iron 

TV 


CHAMPION    ORE    HOISTS,    SECTIONAL    VIEW. 


Range  Railway  was  begun.  It  was  through  a  territory  barren,  steep,  rocky, 
broken  and  bewildering,  but  the  projectors  had  what  the  pioneers  of  the 
Marquette  range  never  had,  money  and  modern  machinery.  But  their  faith 
was  majestic,  for  there  was  not  an  ounce  of  traffic  in  sight  other  than  what 
could  be  obtained  from  the  single  undeveloped  mine.  The  new  mine,  the 
Minnesota,  made  its  first  shipment  of  62,124  tons  in  1884.    It  is  an  interesting 


SOLVING  THE  PROBLEM   OF  UNLOADING  ORE 


193 


commentary  to  make  that  the  shipments  of  this  original  mine  are  now  but 
3  per  cent  of  the  total  annual  shipments  of  the  Vermilion  range.  Had  there 
been  no  more  ore  than  what  was  contained  in  the  original  mine,  which 
was  all  that  the  original  projectors  had  to  go  upon,  the  enterprise  would 
never  have  justified  the  outlay  in  railway  construction. 

In  1884  the-  Gogebic  range,  lying  west  of  the  Menominee,  became  a 
shipper.  The  first  examination  of  this  range  was  made  by  Col.  Charles  Whit- 
tlesey, of  Cleveland,  who  was  the  assistant  of  Owen  when  he  made  his  first 
governmental  survey  in  1848-9.  No  development  was  attempted  until  after 
the  completion  of  the  Wisconsin  Central  railroad  to  Penokee  Gap  in  1873, 


^- 


y 


DIAGRAAI     OF     CHAMPION     ORE     HOIST. 


although  several  companies  had  been  organized  prior  to  1860.  These  were 
the  Magnetic  Iron  Co.,  of  which  Col.  Charles  Whittlesey  was  president ; 
the  Wisconsin  &  Lake  Superior  Co.,  Angus  Smith,  president,  and  the  La 
Pointe  Iron  Co.,  Plon.  H.  B.  Payne,  president.  The  La  Pointe  Iron  Co.  is 
still  in  existence,  owning  several  thousand  acres  of  land  immediately  west 
of  the  Gap.  In  1873  the  company  sank  a  shaft  to  a  depth  of  nearly  100  feet 
in  a  body  of  magnetic  ore,  analyzing  56.9  per  cent  of  metallic  iron  according 
to  Prof.  Irving,  of  the  University  of  Wisconsin,  who  made  his  tests  the 
following  year.  The  panic  of  1873  caused  a  suspension  of  operations  on  the 
La  Pointe  company's  lands  and  to  this  day  they  have  not  been  resumed. 


194 


THE   HONORABLE    PETER   WHITE 


The  Colby,  at  Bessemer,  was  the  first  mine  to  be  opened  on  the  Gogebic 
range.  Ore  in  quantity  was  discovered  on  this  property  in  the  summer  of 
1880  by  Capt.  N.  D.  Moore.  Richard  Langford,  "the  hermit  of  Lake  Su- 
perior," maintains  that  he  is  the  real  discoverer  of  the  Gogebic  range,  claim- 
ing that  he  found  the  Colby  outcrop  beneath  the  roots  of  a  birch  tree  that 
had  been  leveled  by  the  wind  and  that  he  apprised  Capt.  Moore  of  the  loca- 
tion. At  any  rate  it  is  known  that  Langford,  who  was  a  trapper,  carried 
many  samples  of  ore  into  Rockland  years  before  the  range  was  exploited. 


THE   CHAMPION   ORE   HOISTS   AT   THE   ILLINOIS    STEEL   CO.  S   PLANT THE   FIRST   ORE 

UNLOADING    MACHINES    TO    BE    INSTALLED    ON    LAKE    INIICHIGAN. 


The  first  shipment  of  ore  from  the  Colby  mine  was  made  on  flit  cars  over 
the  Milwaukee,  Lake  Shore  &  Western  railway  in  October,  1884,  via  Alil- 
waukee,  to  Erie,  Pa.  This  ore  was  shipped  from  Milwaukee  on  Nov.  11, 
1884,  by  the  Penokec  &  Gogebic  Development  Co.  on  the  schooner  Gawn 
and  was  delivered  at  Erie,  consigned  to  Tuttle,  Oglebay  &  Co.  It  consisted 
of  966  gross  tons.    The  original  bill  of  lading  has  been  preserved,  is  appro- 


SOLVING  THE  rROr.LEM   OF  UNLOADING  ORE  195 

priately  framed  and  is  now  in  the  office  of  Oglebay,  Norton  &  Co.,  Cleve- 
land, successors  to  Tuttle,  Oglebay  &  Co.  It  is  interesting  to  state  that  this 
ore  was  mined  by  a  steam  shovel  under  the  direction  of  Capt.  Joseph  Sell- 
wood,  the  first  ore  to  be  so  mined  in  the  Lake  Superior  country.  The  com- 
mon impression  is  that  the  steam  shovel  was  first  introduced  on  the  Mesabi 
but  that  is  because  the  Mesabi  is  so  vast  a  steam  shovel  proposition  as  to 
overshadow  all  the  rest. 

Peter  White  had  been  campaigning  in  the  peninsula  for  Grover  Cleve- 
land as  vigorously  as  he  had  for  Tilden,  eight  years  before,  and  there  is  to 
be  observed  in  his  scrap  book  in  the  small,  delicate  handwriting  of  the  great 
Democratic  president  a  letter  of  regret  that  he  should  have  left  Washington 
without  calling  at  the  White  House  after  the  inauguration.  That  letter  from 
the  president,  who  was  desirous  of  having  Peter  White  in  his  administration, 
reached  Marquette  almost  as  soon  as  Peter  \\'hite  did.  But  Peter  White 
wanted  no  office. 

During  the  years  in  which  he  was  connected  with  the  Cleveland  Com- 
pany as  its  real  estate  manager,  Peter  White  sold  hundreds  of  thousands  of 
dollars  worth  of  property,  the  principal  transaction  being  the  sale  of  the 
Cleveland  dock  to  the  IVIarquette  &  Western  Railway  in  1882,  a  branch  of 
the  Detroit,  Mackinaw  &  Marquette,  which  was  constructed  to  tap  the  iron 
mines  and  was  the  omy  rival  the  old  Iron  ]\Iountain  Railway  ever  had. 
The  rivalry  did  not  last  long,  however,  as  the  Marquette  &  Western  quickly 
absorbed  the  Iron  Mountain.  They  are  all  a  part  of  the  Duluth,  South 
Shore  &  Atlantic. 


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CHAPTER  XIX. 

DISCOVERY  OF  THE  MESABI  RANGE. 

IT  was  in  1890  that  the  first  successful  exploration  for  iron  ore  began  on  the 
Mesabi  range.  The  credit  for  the  early  development  of  this  range 
belongs  to  Alfred  and  Leonidas  ]\Ierritt,  as  the  Mountain  Iron  mine  was 
found  X^ov.  16,  1890,  by  a  crew  of  workmen  under  Capt.  J.  A.  Nichols, 
who  was  in  the  employ  of  the  Merritts. 

In  August  following  the  Biwabic  group  was  discovered  by  John  Mc- 
Caskill,  Wilbur  Merritt  and  Captain  Nichols.  A  few  months  later  the 
Merritts  found  the  Missabe  Mountain  ore  body,  now  a  portion  of  the 
Virginia  group,  and  shortly  thereafter  Frank  Hibbing  and  others  brought 
the  great  ore  body  of  the  Hibbing  district  to  light.  The  Fay^l  bend  was 
traced  the  following  year  by  J.  Uno  Sebenius,  D.  T.  Adams  and  M.  Van 
Buskirk.  Meanwhile,  regardless  of  all  physical  obstacles,  the  Duluth, 
Missabe  &  Northern  railroad  had  been  projected  and  completed  to  the 
Mountain  Iron  mine  in  November,  1892.  On  Nov.  11,  1892,  the  Mountain 
Iron  Mining  Co.  made  the  first  shipment  of  ore  made  from  the  Mesabi 
range,  shipping  2,073  g^'oss  tons  from  the  Mountain  Iron  mine.  This  was 
consigned  to  Oglebay,  Norton  &  Co.,  Cleveland,  who,  according  to  their 
custom,  have  preserved  and  framed  the  first  bill  of  lading.  It  is  dated 
Nov.  11,  and  was  shipped  on  barge  102.  A  second  cargo  was  shipped  by 
Oglebay,  Norton  &  Co.,  bringing  the  total  to  4,104  tons.  Being  late  in  the 
season  it  froze  in  the  dock  pockets  and  the  whole  operation  attending  the 
initial  shipments  from  Mesabi  were  inauspicious  and  discouraging.  The  ore 
was  divided  among  the  Carnegie  Steel  Co.,  the  Thomas  Furnace  Co..  the 
Isabella  Furnace  Co.  and  the  Oliver  Iron  &  Steel  Co.  Then  followed  the 
Eveleth  group  by  the  discovery  of  the  Adams  mine  by  J.  Uno  Sebenius  and 
Louis  Roucheleau.  In  September,  1893,  the  great  Stevenson  mine  was  dis- 
covered and  explored  by  Edmund  J.  Longyear.  These  mines  still  remain  the 
chief  center  of  mining  and  ore  tonnage  upon  the  Mesabi  range. 

Mesabi  is  the  Indian  word  for  giant,  and  this  range  is  most  appro- 
priately named.     It  is  the  giant's  range,  outrivaling  any  ore  deposit  known 


DISCOVERY  OF  THE  ^lESABI  RANGE 


199 


to  exist  on  earth,  the  leading  mines  sending  forward  from  1,500,000  to 
2,000,000  tons  of  ore  annually.  Enormous  deposits  of  it  lie  loose  like  dust 
and  is  mined  as  cheaply  as  the  proverbial  dust  is  shoveled.  In  fact  Mesabi 
is  largely  a  steam  shovel  proposition. 

Mesabi  was  discovered  at  the  time  when,  notwithstanding  the  then 
unprecedented  demand  for  iron  ore,  the  other  ranges  had  no  difficulty  in 
meeting  all  requirements.  Indeed  more  ore  w'as  piled  up  on  Lake  Erie 
docks  at  the  close  of  the  season  of  1892  than  at  any  previous  period  in  the 


''V 


**.. 


rlTR 


THE    BROWX    GRAB    BUCKET    IN    THE    HOLD    OF    THE    STEAMER    WOLVIN. 


history  of  the  Lake  Superior  region.  Under  such  conditions  the  discovery 
of  unlimited  millions  of  tons  of  soft  ore  tributary  to  these  same  docks  and 
the  same  trade  could  not  but  be  serious  to  many  of  the  old  range  companies. 
Such  a  depreciation  in  the  value  of  mines  and  mining  stocks,  which  were 
earning  a  good  dividend,  as  followed  on  the  heels  of  this  discovery  has 
seldom  if  ever  been  witnessed  in  this  country.  It  is  incredible  that  men 
of  experience  in  the  iron  ore  industry,  who  had  seen  one  new  ore  range 


200 


THE   HONORABLE    PETER   WHITE 


after  another  discovered  and  developed,  and  who  were  heav^ily  interested 
in  iron  mines,  should  have  been  so  short  sighted  as  to  refuse  to  accept  the 
opportunity  repeatedly  offered  to  them  to  secure  holdings  in  the  new  field 
and  thus  recoup  themselves  for  any  loss  that  might  be  sustained  in  their 
old  range  holdings  in  competition  with  the  greater  abundance  and  lower 
workiner  cost  of  ore  in  the  new  range.     What  a  commentary  on  the  blind- 


THE   HULKTT   CLAM-SHELL    BUCKET   IN   THE    WOLVIN  S   HOLD. 


ness  of  human  nature  it  is  that  the  greatest  iron  range  ever  discovered 
should  have  been  disregarded  by  those  best  able  to  appreciate  it  and  that 
the  owners  of  the  newly  discovered  mines  should  have  knocked  vainly  for 
assistance  on  the  doors  of  offices  in  Cleveland,  Pittsburg,  Chicago  and  other 
headquarters  of  the  iron  trade. 

There  is  this  to  be  said,  however — that    the    first    results    of    Mesabi 
ore  in  the  blast  furnace  were  as  disappointing  as  the  first  results  of  Mar- 


202  THE    HONORABLE    PETER    WHITE 

qnette  ore  in  the  blast  furnace.  The  proportion  of  fine  ore  in  some  of  the 
mines  was  very  large,  and  in  smelting  it  considerable  of  this  fine  ore  blew 
over  with  the  gas.  The  prejudice  against  Mesabi  ore  was  as  strong  as  was 
the  prejudice  against  the  soft  hematites  when  they  were  first  introduced. 
Many  exaggerated  and  some  humorous  stories  bearing  on  the  fine  character 
of  Mesabi  ore  were  told,  such  as  how  all  the  boiler  fires  at  one  furnace 
had  been  put  out  by  the  large  quantity  of  flue  dust  in  the  gas,  and  how 
a  train  load  of  500  tons  was  caught  in  a  windstorm  en  route  to  Pittsburg, 
only  250  tons  finally  reaching  Pittsburg  furnaces.  But  this  prejudice  was 
rapidly  overcome  and  the  industrial  supremacy  of  the  United  States  now 
rests  on  the  fii'm  basis  of  ]\Iesabi.  Though  only  twelve  years  old  its  total 
shipments  iiave  already  exceeded  those  of  Marquette,  the  earliest  of  all  the 
ranges.  The  record  of  the  ranges  to  date  is :  Mesabi,  122,742,938  gross 
tons;  Ad^arquette,  80,857,801  tons;  ^Menominee.  58,676,485  tons;  Gogebic, 
50,467,906  tons;  Vermillion,  25,100,159  tons,  making  a  grand  total  with 
some  minor  unclassified  shipments  of  338,173,135  tons. 

Meanwhile  inventive  genius  continued  incessantly  at  work  to  further 
solve  the  unloading  problem  and  to  perfect  the  unloading  equipment.  The 
McMyler  A/[anufacturing  Co.  put  on  the  docks  a  revolving  crane  with 
self-dumping  bucket  attachment  which  did  excellent  service.  Ore  was  be- 
ing hoisted  out  of  the  holds  rapidly  but  the  tubs  were  still  being  filled  by 
hand.  The  problem  was  to  fill  the  tubs  automatically.  This  has  now  been 
remarkably  facilitated  by  three  firms.  Hoover  &  Mason,  of  Chicago,  the 
Wellman-Scaver-Morgan  Co.,  of  Cleveland,  and  the  Brown  Hoisting  Ma- 
chinery Co.  of  Cleveland.  Air.  Mason  invented  an  automatic  bucket  which 
fills  itself  in  any  grade  of  ore  and  applying  the  bucket  to  a  hoisting  tower 
of  the  same  general  construction  as  is  commonly  used  in  the  unloading 
of  coal.  The  general  features  of  the  Hoover  &  Mason  bucket  are  its  great 
weight,  its  tremendous  spread  when  opened  and  the  peculiar  movement 
of  the  blades  when  closing.  The  bucket  has  a  capacity  of  five  tons  of  ore 
and  a  spread  when  open  of  about  18  ft.  The  first  motion  of  the  blades  on 
closing  is  downward  to  efTect  a  partial  penetration  of  the  ore ;  but  during 
the  early  stages  of  operation  of  closing  the  blades  swing  towards  the  hori- 
zontal, giving  a  scraping  action  for  almost  the  entire  reach.  It  is  this 
scraping  action  that  differentiates  the  bucket  from  the  clam-shell  or  orange- 
peel  type,  and  it  is  by  virtue  of  this  action  which  gathers  together  the  loose 
ore  on  the  pile  that  the  bucket  closes  itself  so  successfully. 


DISCOVERY    OF   THE   ^lESABI   RANGE 


203 


In  1899  Mr.  George  H.  Hulett,  of  the  Wellman-Seaver-Morgan  Co.,  in- 
duced the  Carnegie  Steel  Co.  to  establish  on  its  docks  at  Conneaut  an  un- 
loading machine  of  his  own  design.  This  machine  later  estabHshed  the  un- 
loading record  for  the  lakes.  The  Hulett  machine  is  entirely  original.  A 
very  massive  gantry  traveling  on  rails  parallel  to  the  wharf  supports  a  car- 
riage which  has  a  traverse  at  right  angle  to  the  face  of  the  dock.  This  car- 
riage in  turn  supports  a  tilting  girder  at  the  water  end  of  which  hangs  a  leg 
carrying  a  clam-shell  bucket.  This  bucket  is  rotatable  in  either  direction 
around  the  axis  of  the  ram,  thus 
affording  the  opportunity  to  reach 
not  only  the  ore  that  lies  under  the 
hatch  opening,  but  also  that  portion 
which  is  filled  up  between  the  hatch- 
ways. The  leg  carrying  the  bucket 
is  ahvays  kept  in  a  vertical  position 
by  means  of  a  parallel  motion  de- 
vice fixed  to  its  head.  When  un- 
loading from  vessels  the  carriage  car- 


rymg 


tilting 


_  arm  moves  for- 
w^ard,  bringing  the  arm  over  the 
hatchway.  The  arm  is  then  tilted, 
the  leg  descends  into  the  vessel 
and  the  bucket  is  brought  intn 
contact  with  the  ore.  The  bucket 
is  of  the  clam-shell  type  with  its 
blades  swung  from  the  outer  cor- 
ners so  as  to  give  a  w^ide  reach. 
It  is  operated  by  a  hydraulic  cylinder 
or  electric  motor  and  in  closing  is  aid- 
ed   by    the    unbalanced    load    of    the 

tilting  arm.  insuring  thereby  a  full  load  of  ore.  The  buckets  are  of  ten  tons 
capacity.  Each  bucket  is  controlled  by  an  operator  who  is  located  immedi- 
ately above  the  bucket  and  who.  therefore,  descends  into  the  vessel  with  the 
bucket.  The  unloading  record  of  the  great  lakes  was  established  by  these 
machines  on  the  steamer  Augustus  B.  Wolvin,  at  Conneaut.  in  July,  1904. 
The  actual  time  the  Wolvin  was  under  the  unloading  machines  was  four 
liours  and  thirty  minutes,  or  from  7:22  a.  m.  until  11 :52  a.  m.  The  average 
time  that  the  four  Hulett  machines  were  working  on  her  was  four  hours 


GEORGE    H.    HULETT. 


■Vi  i--- 


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208 


THE   HONORABLE    PETER    WHITE 


and  six  minutes,  during  which  time  they  took  out  7,257  gross  tons  of  ore. 
The  maximum  amount  taken  out  in  any  one  hour  was  681  tons  by  the  No. 
3  Hulett  machine.  The  Wolvin's  cargo  upon  this  occasion  was  9,945  tons, 
of  which  the  remaining  2,688  tons  was  taken  out  in  three  hours  and  forty- 
one  minutes  by  four  electrical  machines  of  the  Brown  type.  This  record 
has  now  been  broken  a  trifle  bv  these  same  machines — four  Huletts  and  four 


THE   BROWN    ELECTRICAL   UNEOADIJS'G   MACHINES   AT   CONNEAUT. 


Browns — taking  10,514  tons  out  of  the  steamer  George  W.  Perkins  in  July,. 
1905,  in  four  hours  and  ten  minutes.  This  ore  was  put  directly  aboard  cars, 
but  owing  to  the  fact  that  some  cars  begun  by  one  machine  were  finished^ 
by  the  other,  it  was  impossible  to  accurately  determine  the  amount  taken  out 
by  each  type  of  machine. 


CHAPTER  XX. 

SUBSEQUENT  LOCKS  OF  SAULT  STE.   MARIE  CANAL. 

T  ESS  interest  attaches,  of  course,  to  the  subsequent  development  of  the 
canals  at  Sault  Ste.  Marie,  but  as  they  have  regulated  not  only  the 
growth  of  commerce  but  the  increasing  dimensions  of  the  vessels  as  well 
it  would  be  best  to  outline  their  growth  completely.  When  the  first  canal 
was  completed  Lake  Superior  was,  of  course,  a  wilderness.  There  were  no 
cities  along  its  shores,  no  great  wheat  fields  in  the  region  beyond,  and  com- 
merce, therefore,  increased  slowly.  The  first  canal,  however,  served  to  fix 
for  many  years  the  depth  of  water  to  be  obtained  in  the  harbors  and  in  the 
channels  connecting  the  lakes.  The  depth  of  the  water  in  but  few  of  the 
lake  harbors  was  as  nuich  as  12  ft.,  while  in  the  channels  connecting  the  lakes 
there  were  serious  obstructions.  In  the  Sault  Ste.  Marie  river  a  channel 
several  miles  long  had  to  be  dredged  before  the  limited  commerce  to  and 
from  Lake  Superior  could  make  use  of  the  full  draught  provided  at  the  canal, 
while  the  St.  Clair  fiats  presented  a  like  obstacle  to  the  far  greater  commerce 
passing  there.  The  Civil  War  which  broke  out  six  years  after  the  canal 
was  comnleted  absorbed  the  energies  of  the  countrv  and  all  other  interests 
became  secondarv  to  it.  At  the  close  of  the  war  the  principal  articles  trans- 
ported by  water  were  grain  and  lumber.  The  receipts  of  grain  and  lumber 
at  Buffalo  in  1866  Avere  about  1.500,000  tons.  The  receipts  of  lumber  at 
Chicago  alone  were  about  1.400,000  tons  by  lake,  while  the  iron  ore  ship- 
ments of  all  the  lake  ports  were  less  than  300,000  tons  and  the  coal  tonnage 
but  a  little  greater  than  that  of  iron  ore. 

The  Federal  government  then  began  to  pursue  a  somewhat  more  liberal 
policy  toward  internal  improvements,  and  plans  were  executed  to  make  the 
depth  of  lake  harbors  equivalent  to  the  locks  at  Sault  Ste.  Marie.  This 
depth  of  12  ft.,  however,  sufficed  only  for  a  few  years.  By  1870,  or  soon 
thereafter,  vessels  drawing  13  ft.  and  upwards  could  enter  the  more  impor- 
tant ports,  such  as  Buffalo,  Cleveland  and  Chicago,  and  a  demand  for  a  depth 
of  16  ft.  became  general.  The  initiative  was  again  taken  at  Sault  Ste.  Marie 
by  a  project  for  increasing  the  depth  from  12  to  16  ft.  and  building  a  new 


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SUBSEQUENT  LOCKS   OF  SAULT   STE.   MARIE  CANAL  211 

lock  515  ft.  long  and  80  ft.  wide,  overcoming  the  entire  difference  of  level 
of  about  18  ft.  by  a  single  lift.  These  dimensions  v^'ere  unprecedented  in 
canal  construction  and  the  lift  of  18  ft.  w^as  almost  universally  criticised 
as  injudicious. 

The  improvement  commenced  in  1870  was  completed  in  1881  at  a  cost 
of  $2,200,000.  In  the  meantime  the  State  of  Michigan  ceded  the  canal  to 
the  United  States  by  act  approved  March  i,  188 1,  and  the  latter  assumed 
control  on  June  9  of  that  year.  The  new  locks  were  known  as  the  Weitzel 
locks.  They  were  built  under  the  direction  of  Alfred  Noble  though  de- 
signed by  Gen.  O.  M.  Poe.  Before  the  increased  depth  could  be  made  fully 
available  the  St.  Mary's  river  had  to  be  deepened  in  numerous  places,  the  St. 
Clair  fiats  canal  dredged  and  a  cut  made  through  the  reef  of  rock  at  the 
mouth  of  the  Detroit  river.  The  16  ft.  channel  was  completed  in  1884.  In 
the  meantime  the  principal  harbors  were  put  in  readiness  and  a  fleet  of  large 
vessels  was  built  to  take  full  advantage  of  the  new  facilities.  The  growth 
of  traffic  had  been  notable.  The  average  annual  receipts  of  grain  at  Buffalo 
had  increased  about  50  per  cent.  The  shipment  of  coal  by  lake  at  the 
beginning  of  the  period  was  almost  nil ;  at  the  end  it  was  nearly  4,000,000 
tons,  or  more  than  half  the  entire  Suez  canal  traffic.  Iron  ore  shipments 
had  increased  from  300,000  tons  in  1866  to  2,300,000  tons  in  1884.  The 
number  of  vessels  on  the  lakes  had  increased  but  slightly  but  the  gross  ton- 
nage had  increased  about  50  per  cent.  Freight  rates  had  fallen  remarkably; 
on  iron  ore  from  Lake  Superior  to  Lake  Erie  ports  the  rates  had  fallen 
from  $3.00  to  $1.35,  and  on  wheat  from  Chicago  to  Buffalo  from  9  to  2j4 
cents  a  bushel.  The  net  registered  tonnage  through  the  St.  Mary's  canal 
had  increased  440  per  cent. 

It  has  been  the  history  of  lake  improvements  for  the  past  thirty  years 
that  they  become  inadequate  even  before  they  are  completed.  Before  the 
project  for  16  ft.  navigation  had  been  full)^  carried  out  it  was  clearly  seen 
to  be  inadequate  and  measures  were  taken  for  increasing^  it.  Largely 
through  the  foresight  of  General  O.  M.  Poe,  then  in  charge  of  harbor  and 
river  improvements  between  Lake  Erie  and  Lake  Superior,  the  new  work 
was  undertaken  on  a  liberal  scale.*    A  new  channel  was  opened  through  the 

*General  Orlando  M.  Foe  died  Oct.  2,  189S,  while  lake  commerce  was  in  its  comparative 
infancy,  yet  no  man  understood  its  possibilities  better  than  he,  and  one  of  the  illuminating 
thoughts  of  his  energetic  mind  has  been  again  and  again  referred  to  by  various  speakers  on 
lake  commerce  during  the  past  decade.  In  January,  1891,  he  wrote:  "For  thirty-five  years  I 
have  watched  the  increase  of  the  great  lakes  commerce,  but  neither  I  nor  anyone  else  has  been 
able  to  expand  in  ideas  at  the  same  rate.  The  wildest  expectations  of  one  year  seem  absurdly 
tame  by  the  side  of  the  actual  facts  of  the  next."  That  General  Pbe's  vision  was  prophetic  is 
proved  by  the  fact  that  at  that  time  the  highest  point  that  lake  commerce  had  reached,  as  meas- 
ured   by    the    canals   at    Sault    Ste.    Marie,    was    9,041,213    tons.      This    truly    great    man    had    in    his 


GEN.    0.    M.    POE. 


SUBSEQUENT  LOCKS   OF  SAULT   STE.  MARIE  CANAL  213 

system  of  small  lakes  and  straits  known  as  the  St.  Mary's  river,  saving  ii 
miles  in  distance  and  practicable  for  navigation.  Indeed,  the  extent  of  im- 
provements in  tlie  connecting  channels  of  the  Great  Lakes  is  much  greater 
than  is  generally  realized.  Between  Lakes  Superior  and  Huron  the  aggre- 
gate length  of  new  or  deepened  channels  is  20.3  miles  and  between  Lakes, 
Huron  and  Erie,  2T.2  miles.     The  commerce  between  Lake  Superior  and 

■mind's  eye  the  future  commerce  of  the  great  lakes  more  clearly  than  any  other  man  of  his 
time.  It  was  especially  fortunate,  therefore,'  that  he  should  have  been  selected  to  plan  the 
improvements  to  care  for  this  commerce,  for  he  laid  his  plans  upon  a  comprehensive,  far-reach- 
ing and  mighty  scale.  So  thoroughly  identified  with  lake  commerce  was  General  Poe  that  one 
is  wont  to  forget  his  unusually  brilliant  career  during  the  civil  war.  A  West  Pointer,  when 
the  war  broke  out,  he  accepted  the  appointment  of  chief  topographical  officer  with  the  depart- 
ment of  Ohio,  and  for  a  time  served  on  General  McClellan's  staff  at  Washington.  In  1861  he 
was  appointed  Colonel  of  the  Second  Michigan  Infantry.  He  was  in  command  of  that  regiment 
in  several  battles  and  commanded  brigades  at  the  second  battle  of  Bull  Run  and  at  Manassas. 
In  1862  President  Lincoln  nominated  him  to  be  a  Brigadier  General,  serving  in  the  Rappahan- 
nock campaig'n,  and  in  the  battle  of  Fredericksburg  in  1863  he  commanded  a  divisiori  of  the 
Ninth  Army  Corps.  Later  in  the  same  year  he  was  appointed  chief  engineer  on  the  staff  of 
General  Burnside.  participating  in  the  march  to  East  Tennessee  and  the  occupation  of  Knox- 
ville.  During  the  last  two  years  of  the  war  General  Poe  served  on  the  staff  of  General  Sher- 
man and  a  close  friendship  formed  between  them.  He  was  with  General  Sherman  on  the  famous 
march   to   the   sea   and   at   the   surrender   of    the    Confederate   army   under    Gen.    J.    E.    Johnston. 

In  the  general  army  establishment,  General  Poe  was  breveted  a  Major,  July  6,  1864,  for 
■gallant  services  in  the  siege  of  Knoxville,  and  Lieutenant  Colonel  Sept.  1,  1864,  for  gallant 
services  in  the  capture  of  Atlanta,  and  on  INIarch  13,  1865,  was  nominated  to  be  a  Brigadier 
■General.  General  Sherman  had  the  highest  opinion  of  Poe.  In  speaking  of  him  some  years 
after  the  war,  he  said:  "I  considered  him  one  of  the  most  accomplished  officers  in  the  army. 
■If    I    should    die    tomorrow,    he    is    perfectly    capable    of    filling    the    place    I    occupy." 

In  1865,  General  Poe  was  appointed  engineer  secretary  of  the  lighthouse  board,  serving 
in  that  capacity  for  five  years.  He  served  as  engineer  of  the  ninth  and  eleventh  lighthouse  dis- 
tricts for  three  years  and  as  a  member  of  the  lighthouse  board  ten  years.  His  activities  in  the 
lighthouse  service  extended  over  eighteen  years,  during  which  time  he  had  charge  of  many  im- 
portant works,  and  executed  them  with  consummate  skill.  The  lights  at  Spectacle  Reef  and 
Stanard  Rock  are  notable  examples  of  his  work.  General  Poe's  chief  handiwork  on  the  lakes, 
however,  is  at  Sault  Ste.  Marie.  It  was  in  1870  that  General  Poe  was  directed  to  turn  his 
attention  to  the  canal  at  Sault  Ste.  Marie.  The  iron  interests  of  L^pper  Peninsula  had  for  two 
or  three  years  previously  been  clamoring  for  deeper  draught  in  the  locks,  as  vessels  had  grown 
in  size  and  could  not  pass  through  the  locks  loaded  to  their  full  capacity.  John  Burt  advocated 
"the  deepening  of  the  locks  during  the  winter  months,  so  that  navigation  might  not  be  obstructed. 
As  opposition  was  developing  in  Congress  to  any  appropriation,  owing  to  the  fact  that  the  canal 
was  a  state  affair,  preliminary  negotiations  were  entered  into  for  the  transfer  of  the  canal  to 
the  nation.  Before  negotiations  were  concluded,  however,  Congress  authorized  a  report  on  the 
importance  of  the  work  based  on  14  ft.  draught.  The  making  of  the  report  was  assigned  to 
Gen.  O.  ]\I.  Poe.  General  Poe  finished  his  e.xamination  on  Sept.  20,  1870,  and  sustained  not 
only  all  the  claims  which  had  been  made  regarding  the  importance  of  the  proposed  improvement, 
but  even  went  further  and  declared  that  the  demands  of  commerce  would  warrant  the  construc- 
tion of  a  new  lock,  or  a  set  of  locks,  as  might  be  decided  upon.  He  proceeded  to  prepare 
the  plans  for  two  locks,  but  after  much  consultation  the  plans  were  finally  changed  and  one  for 
a  single  lock  substituted  providing  for  a  draught  of  16  ft.  The  general  plans  for  the  work 
were  completed  during  the  administration  of  General  Poe,  Mr.  Alfred  Noble  being  in  local 
charge  as  assistant  engineer.  General  Weitzel  succeeded  General  Poe  May  1,  1873,  and  the  lock 
since  known  as  the  Weitzel  lock  went  into  commission  in  1881.  At  the  time  of  its  completion, 
the  W'eitzel  lock  was  the  most  splendid  engineering  structure  of  its  kind  in  the  world.  Capa- 
cious as  it  was,  however,  it  was  not  adequate  to  care  for  the  rapidly  growing  commerce  of  the 
.lakes. 


214 


THE   HONORABLE    PETER    WHITE 


Lake  Erie  aggregating  35,000,000  tons  per  year  passes  through  all  of  these, 
a  total  of  41.5  miles  of  artificial  waterway.  This  is  five  miles  greater  than 
the  length  of  restricted  waterway  to  be  made  for  the  Panama  canal.  These 
improvements  included  a  deepening  of  the  St.  Mary's  canal  to  25  ft.  and 
the  building  of  a  new  lock,  now  known  as  the  Poe  lock,  800  ft.  long  and  100 
ft,  wide,  with  20  to  22  ft.  over  the  mitre  sills.  It  was  begun  in  1888  and 
completed  in  1896.  It  is  the  largest  lock  in  existence  and  yet  it  had  scarcely 
been  finished  before  it  was  realized  that  it  was  really  too  small.  When  it 
was  projected  it  was  expected  that  four  vessels  could  be  locked  through  it 


THE   GREAT    CANxXUIAN    LOCK    AT    SAULT    STE.     MARIE. 


General  Poe  returned  to  the  lakes  in  1883  and  with  fine  imagination  laid  broad  and  deep 
the  plans  for  future  development.  Indeed,  in  a  formulative  way  they  had  been  in  his  mind 
since  1871.  So  comprehensive  were  they  that  although  he  has  been  in  his  grave  for  twelve 
years,  the  projects  for  improving  the  channels  for  the  lakes  that  are  still  being  authorized  by 
Congress,  are  upon  his  original  design.  His  handiwork  is  to  be  observed  from  Sault  Ste. 
Marie  to  the  Lime  Kiln  Crossing,  between  which  points  he  caused  to  be  constructed  an  artificial 
waterway  of  over  forty  miles,  an  artificial  cut,  longer  in  fact,  than  is  proposed  for  the  Panama 
Canal.  His  crowning  monument  is  the  Poe  lock  at  Sault  Ste.  Marie,  the  largest  structure  of 
its  kind  in  existence.  In  September,  1895,  General  Poe  was  summoned  to  Sault  Ste.  Marie  to 
examine  a  break  in  the  lock.  The  damage  proved  to  be  a  trifling  matter,  but  in  making  his 
inspection  General  Poe  slipped  and  scraped  his  left  leg  badly.  Returning  to  Detroit  it  was 
found   that   blood   poison   had   set   in    and    he    died   a    few    days    later. 

Speaking  of  his  work,  the  inspector  general  of  the  army  wrote  in  1902:  "The  magnitude 
of  the  work  and  the  intricacy  and  precision  of  detail  was  a  revelation  to  me.  I  could  find  in 
the  methods  adopted  by  Colonel  Poe  as  applied  to  the  works  under  his  charge,  and  his  personal 
knowledge  and  control  of  the  details,  nothing  wanting  in  thoroughness  and  efficiency.  I  cannot 
close  without  referring  to  the  great  responsibility  resting  on  the  shoulders  of  this  officer — a  re- 
sponsibility of  a  character  which  cannot  be  well  understood  or  appreciated  except  from  a  per- 
sonal   knowledge    of   this    great   work." 


SUBSEQUENT  LOCKS  OF  SAULT  STE.  MARIE  CANAL 


215 


at  once.  It  had  hardly  been  finished  before  it  was  seen  that  not  more  than 
one  of  the  modern  vessels  could  be  locked  through  at  one  time,  so  rapid  has 
been  the  increase  in  dimensions  of  the  lake  steamers. 

The  Poe  lock  was  projected  on  the  site  occupied  by  the  original  locks 
built  by  Charles  T.  Harvey.  General  Poe  felt  some  compunction  over  the 
necessity  of  destroying  these  old  locks,  for  in  his  report  to  the  government 
he  writes : 

"On  the  whole,  the  canal  was  a  remarkable  work  for  its  time  and  pur- 
pose. The  construction  of  the  locks  especially  bore  evidence  of  a  master's 
hand  in  their  design  and  execution,  and  it  is  no  reflection  on  the  engineer  in 
charge    that    experience    developed    certain    objectionable    features.     These 


INDIANS   FISHING   IN   THE   RAPIDS. 


locks  are  now  being  torn  out  to  make  room  for  a  new  one,  and  every  step 
in  their  destruction  reveals  the  excellence  of  the  workmanship,  the  honest 
character  of  the  materials  employed  and  the  faithful  compliance  with  the 
conditions  of  the  contract  under  which  they  were  built,  not  merely  in  the 
letter  but  in  the  spirit.  All  honor,  then,  to  every  man  connected  with  their 
design  and  construction.  They  were  long  in  advance  of  their  day,  and  if 
commerce  had  not  outgrown  their  dimensions  they  would  have  done  good 
service  for  a  century.  I  must  confess  to  a  feeling  of  great  regret  that  it 
has  become  necessary  to  destroy  these  first  locks.  Inanimate  though  they 
were,  they  seemed  to  appeal  to  every  sentiment  of  respect.  They  had  never 
failed  to  respond  to  any  demand  within  their  capacity ;  they  had  contributed 
in  a  higher  degree  than  any  other  one  feature  to  the  development  of  the 


216 


THE   HONORABLE   PETER    WHITE 


country  to  the  westward  of  them,  and  having  done  such  good  work  are  now 
to  be  obliterated  in  the  interest  of  that  very  commerce  they  did  so  much  to 
estabHsh.  The  man  who,  knowing  their  history,  can  see  them  go  without 
compunction  is  made  of  other  stuff  than  I  am,  and  if  an  engineer  has  no 
genuine  love  for  his  profession  nor  pride  in  the  achievement  of  those  who 
successfully  apply  its  teachings  to  the  best  examples  of  his  art." 

When  the  Poe  lock  was  building  the  Canadian  government  decided  to 
have  a  canal  of  its  own  on  their  side  of  the  river,  and  built  it  at  a  cost  of 
about  $4,000,000.  The  lock  is  900  ft.  long,  60  ft.  wide  and  22  ft.  deep.  It 
was  opened  to  navigation  in  1895.  Ten  years  later,  or  in  1905,  the  first  bulk 
freighter  appeared  that  was  too  large  to  pass  through  this  magnificent  lock. 
This  was  the  steamer  William  G.  J\lather,  of  the  Cleveland-Clififs  Iron  Co.'s 
fleet,  which  was  built  w^tli  a  beam  of  60  ft.  Three  others  have  since  ap- 
peared, the  L.  S.  DeGrafif,  W.  M.  Mills  and  William  B.  Kerr,  of  the  Weston 
Transit  Co.'s  fleet. 

Doubtless  other  vessels  of  similar  or  greater  beam  will  folhjw  rendering 
useless  this  magnificent  structure  as  far  as  they  are  concerned  and  proving 
that  it  is  impossible  to  adequately  gauge  the  growth  of  the  lake  steamer  even 
a  few  years  ahead. 

The  lockage  facilities  of  Sault  Ste.  Marie  now  comprise  three  im.portant 
locks,  each  overcoming  the  entire  difference  of  level  at  the  rapids  and  each 
equipped  with  hydraulic  or  electrical  machinery  for  all  operations.  Plans 
are  now  being  prepared  for  a  greater  lock  than  ever  on  the  American  side. 


m. 


THii   Ai'i'KUACll    TO   bAULT    STE.    MAKIE   CANAU 


CHAPTER  XXI. 

FRANCIS    H.    CLERGUE    AND    IIIS    INDUSTRIES. 

"M  OAV  comes  a  part  of  the  story  which  shows  with  what  ridiculous  ease 
money  and  modern  methods  may  accomplish  in  a  few  months  what  cost 
the  hardy  pioneers  of  the  Marquette  district  infinite  toil  and  hardship  and 
years  of  unremunerative  labor.  In  the  summer  of  1897,  Benjamin  Boyer, 
a  prospector  searching  for  gold  in  the  Michipicoten  country  125  miles  north 
of  the  Sault,  found  an  outcropping  of  hard  hematite."  As  he  had  no  funds 
with  which  to  explore  the  deposit  he  went  to  Sault  Ste.  Marie  and  offered 
to  point  out  the  location  to  Mr.  Francis  H.  Clergue  for  $500,  submitting  at 
the  same  time  samples  of  the  ore.  The  chance  was  easily  worth  the  sum 
asked.  Diamond  drills  were  later  taken  to  the  property  and  examinations 
made  both  in  the  land  and  through  the  ice  of  an  adjacent  lake,  now  known 
as  Boyer  lake,  at  whose  bottom,  120  feet  down,  the  ore  was  found  to  con- 
tinue. 

It  was  August,  1899,  when  it  was  decided  that  the  iron  must  be  utilized, 
A  scow  loaded  to  the  guards  with  tools,  supplies,  horses,  workmen  and  engi- 
neers was  towed  from  Sault  Ste.  Marie  to  the  perfectly  landlocked  bay  of 
Michipicoten,  and  the  engineers  spent  the  first  day  in  cutting  a  hole  in  the 
forest  large  enough  for  their  tents.  The  ore  lay  twelve  miles  to  the  north- 
ward over  as  difificult  a  country  to  journey  as  one  might  possibly  imagine. 
The  conditions  were  similar  to  those  which  confronted  the  Cleveland  and 
Jackson  Iron  Mining  companies  in  1849  when  Peter  White  landed  at  Mar- 
quette. The  ore  of  the  Alarquette  range  also  lay  fourteen  miles  from  the 
lake  over  mountainous  country.  Probably  no  more  illuminating  picture  of 
the  advance  of  a  half  century  could  be  presented  than  that  which  is  afforded 
by  the  mere  contrast  of  the  development  of  the  Marquette  and  Michi- 
picoten ranges.  The  very  next  day  after  Clergue's  engineers  landed  at 
Michipicoten  Bay  they  began  a  survey  to  the  mines  and  the  laborers  began 
the  grade.  They  had  a  wilder  country  to  work  in  than  the  Marquette  pio- 
neers because  it  was  far  more  mountainous.  Winter  was  coming  on — it 
comes  on  early  in  the  Lake   Superior  country — and  every  article  needed, 


MR.    FRANCIS     H.    CLERGUE. 


FRANCIS  H.  CLERGUE  AND  HIS  INDUSTRIES  219 

from  steam  shovels  to  locomotives,  would  have  to  be  landed  in  the  wilderness 
before  winter  put  its  seal  upon  the  onlv  avenue  of  communication  open  to 
them.  Supplies  not  on  the  ground  by  November  were  not  to  be  had  at  any 
cost  till  April.     Neither  food  nor  men  could  be  obtained  in  the  interim. 

When  Clergue's  engineers  began  the  task  in  August  the  forest  loomed 
an  apparently  impenetrable  wall  before  them ;  the  hills  rose  almost  straight 
from  the  water's  edge  and  the  entire  country  to  the  mine  was  a  succession 
of  gaping  fissures,  vast  upheavals  of  rock  and  deep  water  courses.  Eleven 
months  later,  or  to  be  exact,  on  July  12,  1900,  the  first  cars  of  ore  passed 
down  and  out  of  the  open  mine  over  a  track  laid  in  80-pound  steel  rails  in 
cars  of  50-tons  capacity  pulled  by  iio-ton  locomotives.  The  ore  was 
dumped  into  pockets  of  a  dock  that  had  been  constructed  during  the  winter 
in  Michipicoten  harbor,  and  from  these  pockets  it  slid  by  means  of  chutes 
into  ships  that  had  been  purchased  in   Britain   for  the  purpose.     What  a 


MICHIPICOTEN    HARBOR. 


contrast  this  furnishes  to  the  little  strap  railroad  of  fifty  years  ago  with  its 
little  cars  of  4-tons  capacity,  laboriously  pulled  by  mules.  The  Helen  mine 
on  the  Michipicoten  range,  named  after  Mr.  Clergue's  sister,  shipped  about 
50,000  tons  during  its  first  season ;  on  the  Marquette  range  they  could  not 
haul  ore  at  all  in  the  summer  time  owing  to  the  roads  and  work  as  hard  as 
they  might  with  sleighs  during  the  winter  they  could  never  get  a  stock  pile  on 
the  docks  by  spring  of  more  than  1,000  tons. 

Francis  H.  Clergue  is  the  great  industrial  captain  of  Sault  Ste.  Marie. 
His  was  the  primal  force  in  the  development  of  the  new  Ontario  and  no 
one  will  ever  be  able  to  rob  him  of  that  distinction.  In  the  management  of 
the  work  which  he  established  others  may  come  and  go  and  be  forgotten, 
but  Clergue  will  always  be  remembered  as  the  bold  and  original  man  who 
founded  an  industrial  empire  in  the  Canadian  wilderness.  It  was  he  who 
changed  the  countenance  of  Sault  Ste.  Marie  and  made  its  physical  aspect 
so  distinguished  from  what  it  was  when  Johnston  wooed  and  won  his  bride. 


220 


THE  HONORABLE  PETER  WHITE 


Subtract  Clergue  and  the  face  of  things  would  not  have  materially  altered 
since  Johnston's  time ;  add  him,  and  a  hundred  enterprises  including  rolling 
mills,  steel  works,  pulp  mills  and  railways  spring  into  being.  It  is  regretted 
that  only  hurried  mention  can  be  made  of  him  in  this  work.  Clergue  was 
about  thirty-five  years  old  when  in  1893  he  went  west  at  the  solicitation  of 
some  Philadelphia  friends  to  search  for  some  available  water  power  that 
might  be  developed.  At  that  time  capital  was  being  generally  attracted  to 
the  tremendous  possibilities  of  water  power.  Clergue  visited  a  number  of 
places  and  finally  in  his  journey  reached  Sault  Ste.  Marie.  He  was  imme- 
diately impressed  with  the  possibilities  of  the  place  for  water  power  develop- 
ment. The  St.  Mary's  river  had  a  fall  of  from  17  to  18  feet,  and  Lake  Su- 
perior was  its  inexhaustible  mill  pond.     On  the  Canadian  side  he  found  a 


THE   GROUND    WOOD    PULP    MILL. 


small  and  practically  abandoned  water  power  canal,  the  charter  of  which  he 
had  little  difficulty  in  securing.  The  canal  was  rapidly  placed  in  working 
order  and  in  a  short  time  the  company  had  20,000  horse  power  for  sale. 
To  Clergue's  very  great  surprise  nobody  wanted  any  water  power.  The 
panic  of  1893  was  on,  and  capital  would  neither  develop  old  enterprises  nor 
invest  in  new  ones.  To  save  the  improvement  already  made,  Clergue  turned 
his  attention  to  utilizing  the  water  power  himself.  It  was  clear  that  in  a  set- 
tlement as  remote  from  the  center  of  population  as  Sault  Ste.  Marie,  an  en- 
terprise to  be  successful  should  proceed  upon  the  principle  of  utilizing  the  raw 
materials  at  hand.       It  was  natural,   therefore,  that  Clergue   should  turn 


FRANCIS  H.  CLERGUE  AND  HIS  INDUSTRIES 


221 


his  attention  to  the  woods.  He  conceived  the  idea  of  making  paper  pulp. 
He  was  aided  in  this  by  previous  training,  because  he  had  been  identified 
with  paper  mills  about  his  home  in  Maine  as  a  young  man.  A  pulp  mill 
with  a  capacity  of  lOO  tons  a  day  was  erected  to  turn  out  wood  pulp.  Wood 
pulp  was  then  shipped  wet  to  the  paper  factories,  and  in  addition  to  the 
added  cost  of  freight  on  55  per  cent  of  water,  there  was  the  loss  caused  by 
decomposition.  This  circumstance  naturally  limited  the  market,  and  the 
paper  makers  of  the  great  Wisconsin  district  looked  at  the  Sault  Ste.  Marie 
plant  as  a  valuable  adjunct  to  them  in  the  way  of  furnishing  raw  material 
but  of  no  particular  importance  to  its  own  stockholders.  In  fact,  during 
the  hard  times  succeeding  the  panic  of  1893,  there  was  no  active  demand  for 
pulp  and  as  it  had  to  be  stored  wet  it  spoiled  on  the  company's  hands.     This 


THE   GREAT   POWER  CANAL   ON    THE    AIICHIGAN    SIDE. 


obstacle  to  winning  a  profit  from  the  business  set  Clergue  to  thinking,  and 
he  turned  the  question  over  to  the  mechanical  experts  of  the  company  to  dis- 
cover whether  pulp  could  be  manufactured  dry.  The  result  was  the  inven- 
tion and  installation  of  drying  attachments  which  worked  with  perfect  suc- 
cess. Instead  of  a  market  confined  to  a  contiguous  state  or  two  Clergue 
foimd  the  whole  pulp-consuming  world  at  his  feet.  Dry  pulp  can  be  shipped 
any  distance  without  loss  and,  in  fact,  the  company  was  soon  filling  orders 
from  Europe  and  the  Orient.  This  industry  has  become  extremely  profit- 
able ovv^ing  largely  to  the  natural  advantages  in  manufacture,  the  enormous 


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224 


THE  HONORABLE  PETER  WHITE 


and  practically  free  supply  of  spruce  wood  and  the  cheap  and  excellent  power 
furnished  by  Lake  Superior.  The  pulp  mill  is  one  of  the  largest  in  America 
and  its  output  is  welcomed  by  the  paper  makers  because  it  is  always  clean 
and  white,,  the  water  from  Lake  Superior  being  one  of  the  sweetest  and 
clearest  known  and  uniform  all  the  year  round.  Moreover,  the  plant  is 
operated  on  the  principle  of  water  power  itself,  which  never  stops.  The 
mill  is  running  night  and  day  and  uses  about  14,000  horse  power  continu- 
ally. Later  a  sulphite  mill  was  erected  for  the  manufacture  of  chemical 
pulp  which  is  more  valuable  than  ground  pulp.  The  sulphite  mill  soon 
reached  a  capacity  of  70  tons  a  day.  Nickel  mines  were  bought  in  the 
Sudbury  district,  100  miles  east  of  the  Sault,  from  which  to  obtain  sulphur 


HEAD    GATES,    POWER    CANAL,    MICHIGAN,    LAKE    SUPERIOR    POWER    CO. 

and  the  Manitoulin  &  North  Shore  Railway  was  projected  to  reach  it  and 
other  contiguous  nickel  deposits. 

Clergue  determined  to  preserve  everything  at  Sault  Ste.  Marie  that 
would  be  of  historical  interest.  In  buying  the  old  Hudson  Bay  Co.'s  station 
for  a  mill  site  he  rebuilt  the  old  block  house  upon  it  and  used  it  as  his  home. 
The  stone  walls  are  those  built  by  the  Hudson  Bay  Co.  more  than  fifty  years 
ago.  The  old  loop  holes  remain.  The  upper,  or  overhanging  portion,  made 
of  logs,  had  to  be  rebuilt,  but  the  original  design  has  been  preserved. 

One  of  the  greatest  of  Clergue's  enterprises  was  the  construction  of  the 
power  canal  on  the  Michigan  side  of  the  St.  Mary's  river.  This  canal  is 
2I/3  miles  long  from  the  mouth  of  the  intake  above  the  rapids  to  the  overflow 
far  below  the  entrance  to  the  ship  canal.     Like  an  immense  river  220  feet 


FRANCIS  H.  CLERGUE  AND  HIS  INDUSTRIES 


225 


broad  and  deep  enough  to  float  the  deepest  vessel  that  sails  the  lakes,  it 
serves  to  convert  the  city  of  Sault  Ste.  Marie  into  a  city  of  two  parts,  with 
the  island  part  now  completely  surrounded  by  water  as  the  business  section, 
and  the  balance  of  the  city  given  over  to  the  residences  of  its  citizens.  Its 
average  width  is  224  ft.  and  its  depth  22  ft.  This  great  canal  in  its  course 
through  the  city  traverses  thirteen  streets  and  is  spanned  by  a  number  of 
fine  steel  bridges.  At  the  lower  end  the  canal  widens  out  into  the  forebay, 
or  millpond,  for  the  purpose  of  securing  sufficient  frontage  for  the  uniform 
distribution  of  the  water  to  all  of  the  turbines  which  are  installed  along  the 
river  face  of  the  forebay  in  the  power  house.  The  river  front  of  the  fore- 
bav  is  closed  by  the  power  house,  the  duplicate  of  which  cannot  be  found  in 


^'    Iff  ff  !* 


rilE    CHEMICAL    LAEORATORY    AXD    SULRHITE    PULP    MILL    AT    SAULT    STE.     MARIE 

the  United  States,  and  which,  more  than  any  other  structure,  contributes  to 
tiie  turreted  and  embattled  aspect  which  Sault  Ste.  Marie  now  presents  in 
contrast  to  the  days  when  existence  there  was  dream-like  and  romantic. 
This  power  house  is  constructed  of  red  sandstone,  is  over  a  quarter  of  a  mile 
in  length  and  100  ft.  wide,  and  is  125  ft.  high.  This  massive  structure  rests 
upon  a  foundation  of  piles  covered  bv  log  sills  and  caps  and  covered  with 
Portland  cement  concrete  to  a  depth  of  3  ft.  The  substructure  consists  of 
81  masonry  walls  100  ft.  long,  20  ft.  high  and  3  ft.  thick.  The  stalls  or  pits 
thus  formed,  aside  from  supporting  the  building,  serve  to  deliver  the  water 


226  THE  HONORABLE  PETER  WHITE 

from  the  turbines  into  the  river.  The  penstocks  are  all  of  uniform  dimen- 
sions, 40  ft.  long-,  15  ft.  wide  and  20  ft.  high.  The  dynamo  floor  occupies 
space  on  the  same  floor  on  the  river  side  of  the  power  house.  The  floor 
above  is  used  for  the  machinery  which  converts  the  energy  of  the  water  into 
electrical  power.  The  energy  converted  by  this  great  canal  is  estimated  at 
40,000  H.  P.,  which  is  developed  by  320  turbines.  Four  of  these  turbines 
in  pairs  are  placed  in  each  penstock.  All  of  the  turbines  are  joined  to  one 
high  shaft  of  pressed  steel.  Thus  the  power  is  produced  to  turn  the  dynamos 
awaiting  on  the  floor  above.  The  electrical  equipment  of  the  power  house 
consists  of  eighty  dynamos,  and  the  power  thus  generated  is  transmitted  by 
means  of  wires  to  the  doors  of  the  various  plants  purchasing  it. 

An  interesting  feature  of  the  canal  is  the  big  movable  dam  constructed 
at  the  head  of  the  canal  to  control  the  volume  of  water.  This  dam  is  made 
up  of  four  leaves  50  ft.  long  and  28  ft.  high,  suspended  from  and  operating 
between  piers  of  solid  masonry.  \A'hen  the  water  is  entering  the  canal  freely 
these  leaves  are  suspended,  and  when  it  is  desired  to  stop  the  flow,  the  leaves 
are  lowered  against  a  sill  in  the  canal  bed. 

Naturally,  no  such  engineering  work  as  this,  designed  to  relieve  Lake 
Superior  of  30,000  cu.  ft.  of  water  per  second  twenty-four  hours  a  day,  365 
days  a  year,  would  be  permitted  to  be  constructed  without  assurances  that 
the  interests  of  navigation,  which  are  paramount,  would  be  safeguarded  in 
every  vv'ay.  The  actual  construction  of  this  canal  had  proceeded  well  along 
towards  completion  before  the  attention  of  the  Federal  government  was 
drav.^i  to  it.  Before  water  was  turned  into  the  bed  of  the  canal  the  subject 
was  brought  to  the  attention  of  the  Rivers  and  Harbors  Committee,  at 
Washington,  and  Clergue  had  his  engineers  there  present  a  plan  to  quiet  all 
objections  of  the  vessel  interests.  This  plan  involved  the  construction  of 
compensating  works  at  the  head  of  the  rapids  just  west  of  the  Internationa! 
bridge.  These  Avorks  are  designed  to  stop  as  much  of  the  flow  of  the  rapids 
as  will  be  taken  through  the  power  canal.  The  compensating  works  con- 
sist of  a  monolithic  concrete  breakwater  with  steel  gates,  and  in  addition  a 
submerged  dam.  When  lowered  tlic  gates  practically  stop  all  flow  of  water 
and  they  can  be  raised  to  their  full  height  in  six  minutes.  The  importance 
of  these  compensating  works  is  not  confined  to  the  special  purpose  for  which 
they  were  built.  Leading  engineers  are  of  the  opinion  that  they  really  pre- 
sent the  first  step  towards  conserving  the  level  of  the  lakes,  a  subject  which 
must  eventually  become  of  primary  importance  to  the  interests  associated 
with  the  Great  Lakes  trade,  since  the  level  of  the  lower  lakes  has  for  several 
years  been  steadily  declining. 

Meanwhile  the   Algoma   Central   Railroad    was   being  pushed   steadily 


FRANCIS  H.  CLERGUE  AND   HIS   INDUSTRIES 


227 


north  from  the  Sanlt  to  connect  with  the  Canadian  Pacific  200  miles  away 
and  with  the  uhimate  intention  of  reaching  Hudson  Bay,  500  miles  away. 
For  the  projection  of  this  railway,  together  with  that  of  the  Manitonlin  & 
North  Shore  Ry.,  the  company  received  great  grants  of  land  and  practically 
a  million  dollars  in  money  from  the  Dominion  government.  A  grant  of 
1,650,000  acres  was  given  in  consideration  of  projecting  the  Algoma  Central 
to  tap  the  Canadian  Pacific  trunk  line.  For  the  stretch  of  300  miles  beyond 
the  junction  of  the  Canadian  Pacific,  the  Dominion  government  ofifered  a 
grant  of  3,000.000  acres  of  hmd.    This  was  indeed  an  empire  in  itself.    These 


THE  BLAST   FURNACES   AT   SAULT   STE.    MARIE. 


grants  from  the  government  include  the  mineral  and  timber  rights  and  con- 
stitute assets  of  enormou.s  potentiality.  The  timber  on  the  land  is  largely 
spruce,  and  as  spruce  is  indispensable  for  paper  making  and  is  becoming 
somewhat  scarce  elsewhere  the  value  of  this  single  asset  is  great.  There 
are  also  splendid  growths  of  maple,  birch  and  other  hardwood  adaptable  for 
the  manufacture  of  fine  furniture.  Clergue  put  into  the  field  hundreds  of 
expert   mineralogists,   geologists  and  woodsmen,   locating  bodies   of  timber 


228  THE  HONORABLE  PETER  WHITE 

and  favorable  mineral  bearing  lands  and  verifying  and  correcting  previous 
information  from  all  sources. 

A  fine  laboratory  was  established  at  the  Sault  in  which  the  company 
tested  any  minerals  brought  to  it  from  any  part  of  the  country  near  its 
operations.  Twelve  chemists  were  constantly  employed  in  analyses  and 
experimentation.  The  completeness  of  the  technical  library  in  connection 
w'th  the  laboratory  may  be  indicated  when  it  is  said  that  one  hundred  tech- 
nical publications,  monthly  and  weekly,  were  received,  were  repaged  consec- 
utively, completely  indexed,  and  bound. 

Correlation  is  one  of  the  significant  characteristics  of  Clergue's  mental 
make-up,  and  having  acquired  iron  mines  it  was  natural  that  he  should 
desire  a  blast  furnace ;  and  having  a  blast  furnace,  steel  works  would  natur- 
ally follow  ;  and  as  the  Dominion  was  extending  its  railways  rapidly,  it  was  in- 
evitable that  a  rail  mill  should  be  added  to  meet  the  demand.  Clergue  estab- 
lished at  Sault  Ste.  Marie  a  Bessemer  steel  plant  and  rail  mill  under  the  cor- 
porate name  of  the  x^lgoma  Steel  Company.  The  entire  mechanical  equip- 
ment of  this  plant  was  installed  and  was  practically  ready  to  run  at  the  end  of 
1901,  but  owing  to  delay  on  the  part  of  contractors  for  the  structural 
work  and  the  lack  of  girders  and  columns  to  support  the  cranes  without 
which  the  mill  could  not  be  operated,  it  was  impossible  to  put  the  plant  in 
operation  until  1902.  The  starting  of  this  mill  was  an  event  of  no  little 
importance  in  the  history  of  Canada,  as  it  marked  the  rolling  of  the  first 
rail  in  the  Dominion  of  Canada  of  steel  made  from  Canada  pig  iron,  smelted 
from  Ontario  iron  ore.  The  steel  was  unfortunately  not  of  Bessemer  qual- 
ity. Two  furnaces,  one  for  the  use  of  charcoal  and  the  other  for  coke  were 
under  construction,  and  the  steel  works  for  a  short  while  during  1902  ran 
on  purchased  pig  iron.  There  were  difficulties,  however,  in  the  way  of 
running  a  steel  works  with  purchased  pig  iron  in  insufficient  supply,  and  the 
company  finally  closed  the  works  until  its  own  furnaces  could  be  put  into 
blast.  Moreover,  the  bounty  which  the  Canadian  government  was  paying 
could  only  be  earned  on  steel  as  the  pig  iron  bounty  was  paid  only  on  pig 
iron  made  from  ore  mined  within  the  Dominion. 

The  steel  works  and  rail  mill,  however,  are  among  the  finest  in  the 
world.  The  construction  of  the  plant  is  such  that  material  can  be  handled 
at  a  minimum  labor  cost  and  an  unusually  large  output  per  man  is  thus  ob- 
tainable. The  availability  of  electric  power  at  much  lower,  cost  than  steam 
is  one  of  the  great  advantages  enjoyed  bv  this  plant.  Certainly  no  plant  in 
the  world  liad  the  advantage  of  such  cheap  power  as  this  with  Lake  Supe- 
rior harnessed  in  a  canal  at  its  doors.  Adjacent  to  the  blast  furnaces  and 
steel  works,  a  battery  of  twenty  by-product  retorts  was  constructed  with  all 


FRANCIS  H.  CLERGUE  AND  HIS  INDUSTRIES 


229 


the  necessary  equipment  for  recovering  the  products  of  distillation.  In  the 
operation  of  the  charcoal  retorts  the  recovery  of  the  waste  products — 
acetate  of  lime  and  wood  alcohol — were  practically  made  to  pay  the  cost  of 
making  the  charcoal.  In  addition  to  these  by-products,  bee-hive  kilns  were 
built  on  points  of  the  Algoma  Central  Railway  where  supplies  of  hard  wood 
could  be  obtained  to  the  greatest  advantage. 

Clergue  attacked  his  various  problems  with  tlie  utmost  energy.  Lake 
Boyer^  on  the  shore  of  which  the  Helen  mine  is  located,  he  caused  to  be 
drained  and  developed  the  property  in  such  manner  as  to  make  it  possible 
to  win  the  largest  amount  of  ore  in  the  shortest  space  of  time.     Shafts  were 


^ 

GENERAL  VIEW  OF  BLAST  FURNACp;S  AND  WATp:r  APPROACH. 

sunk  and  at  different  levels  workings  Avere  extended  into  the  solid  body  of 
ore.  A  second  deposit  now  known  as  the  Josephine  was  discovered  ten 
miles  beyond  the  Helen  mine,  and  the  railway  was  immediately  extended 
to  it.  There  were  none  of  the  troublesome  questions  of  finance  and  equip- 
ment to  be  met  with  that  had  bothered  the  Marquette  pioneers.  The  means 
were  at  hand  and  the  railway  was  constructed  within  a  few  months. 

In  the  Sudbury  region  work  was  steadily  pushed  forward  on  the  nickel 
property.  Large  amounts  of  nickel  ore  were  raised  both  from  the  Gertrude 
and  Elsie  mines.  The  first  smelter  at  the  Gertrude  mine  was  put  into 
operation  in  June,  1902. 

Sawmills   and   veneer  mills   were   established   to   utilize   the   hardwood 


230  THE  HONORABLE  PETER  WHITE 

timber  on  the  company's  grants  of  land.  Only  those  parts  of  hardwood 
which  could  not  be  worked  up  into  fine  furniture  were  used  in  the  charcoal 
kilns.  The  veneer  mill,  the  only  one  in  Canada,  had  sold  its  product  for 
months  ahead  to  makers  of  fine  furniture  and  from  its  own  natural  advan- 
tages, cheap  raw  material  and  cheap  power,  was  capable  of  earning  an 
enormous  percentage  upon  its  own  investment. 

An  electric  light  plant  was  constructed  at  Sault  Ste.  Marie  to  light  the 
towns.  Street  railways  were  built  and  water  works  established^  the  sub- 
sidiary companies  deriving  power  from  the  canal. 

A  Hulett  automatic  unloader,  electricallv  driven,  was  installed  on  the 
dock  at  Sault  Ste.  Marie  to  take  ore  from  the  vessels. 

With  ore  from  its  own  mines,  brought  in  its  own  ships,  fuel  from  its 
own  lands  carried  on  its  own  railway,  with  a  large  government  bounty,  with 
the  cheapest  known  power  on  earth  and  an  abundant  market,  the  Dominion 
government  at  that  time  being  activeK'  engaged  in  the  projection  of  new 
railways  and  with  the  necessity  foj  the  renewal  of  some  18,000  miles  of  rail- 
road then  existing,  Clergue  had  reason  to  look  forward  with  confidence  to 
the  future  of  his  business. 

Clergue  went  to  the  Sault  in  1894.  He  found  it  a  primitive  settlement 
with  no  industries  whatever.  He  left  it  eight  years  later  with  machine  shops 
and  foundries  splendidly  equipped,  blast  furnaces  with  the  most  modern 
and  improved  devices  for  unloading  and  charging  the  stack,  with  rail  mills 
whose  economy  of  operation  is  the  delight  of  the  practiced  engineer,  with 
saw  and  veneer  mills,  sulphur  reduction  works,  with  car  shops,  brick  yards, 
street  railways,  ferry  lines,  freight  and  passenger  steamers,  with  the  Al- 
goma  Central  &  Hudson  Bav  Railroad  in  operation  for  106  miles  and  graded 
for  99  more,  with  the  Manitoulin  &:  North  Shore  Railway  in  operation  for 
fifteen  miles,  with  iron  ore  and  nickel  ore  mines  in  complete  development, 
with  great  power  canals  and  power  houses  in  complete  operation,  and  with 
numerous  subsidiary  enterprises  springing  up  around  him. 

The  great  Michigan  power  canal  had  taken  six  years  time  and  had  cost 
$6,500,000:  the  blast  furnaces  and  steel  mills  had  cost  $4,500,000;  the  rail- 
ways and  ships  had  cost  $9,500,000;  the  pulp  mills  $1,000,000;  the  mining 
properties  $1,000,000;  the  ferro-nickel  works  $500,000,  and  other  sums 
making  the  aggregate  cash  investment  approximate  $25,000,000. 

Clergue's  ability  in  organizing  was  so  great  and  his  faith  in  the  natural 
resources  of  Canada  so  steadfast  that  he  won  completely  the  confidence  of  the 
Dominion  government.  No  man  had  greater  influence  at  Ottawa  than 
Clergue  and  he  got  all  that  he  ever  asked  for.  He  agreed  to  settle  annually 
1,000  immigrants  in  the  wilderness  of  Algoma  and  he  had  2,000  men  chop- 


fra:\xts  h.  clergue  and  his  industries 


231 


ping  wood  for  him  continually  in  the  country  north  of  Sault  Ste.  Marie. 
He  had  molded  a  group  of  industries  into  a  beautiful  system,  one  feeding 
the  other,  so  that  no  profit  in  the  various  processes  of  manufacture  escaped. 
The  whole  plan,  even  if  extravagantly  executed,  was  nevertheless  well 
thought  out  and  will  yet  prove  the  wisdom  of  its  founder.  Disaster  fell 
upon  Clergue  at  the  ver\'  moment  when  he  had  least  cause  to  expect  it. 
The  last  plant  to  complete  the  group  of  industries  had  practically  been  com- 
pleted wdien  the  financial  crash  was  precipitated.  Had  he  been  granted  a 
little  more  time,  had  capital  to  operate  been  given  as  freely  as  it  was  to  es- 
tablish, Clergue  could  doubtless  have  g*ot  the  group  working  as  a  unit,  but 
during  his  wdiole  connection  with  it  the  company  cannot  be  said  to  have 


THE   RAIL    MILL    AT    SAULT    STE.     MARIE. 


been  a  sroing  concern  at  all,  since  his  whole  energies  w^ere  consumed  in 
the  construction  of  the  correlated  plants.  He  never  saw  them  in  operation 
as  a  unit  though  it  is  as  a  unit  that  thev  must  be  operated  to  produce  the 
greatest  profit,  since  one  is  dependent  upon  the  other.  Clergue  was 
practically  superseded  in  the  management  of  the  property  in  the  fall  of 
1902. 

Clergue's  habit  of  thought  is  not  that  of  the  ordinary  promoter,  who  in 
projecting  enterprises  invariabh'  seeks  a  quick  return  in  profits.  Clergue 
pushed  his  enterprises  from  the  other  direction.  He  believed  in  solidity 
as  the  primal  requisite.  The  consequence  is  that  the  w'orks  at  the  Sault  are 
built  to  remain.  They  are  as  impregnable  as  fortifications,  and  fifty  years 
hence  tl:e:r  construction  will  stand  for  tens  of  thousands  of  dollars  per  an- 
num in  the  profit  and  loss  account.     In  their  turreted,  castellated  anrl  em- 


232  THE  HONORABLE  PETER  WHITE 

battled  appearance  they  remind  one  of  the  architecture  of  raediseval 
Europe. 

Expectation  of  profits  on  the  Clergue  enterprises  at  the  Sauk  have  been 
deferred,  it  is  true,  but  they  have  never  been  disproved.  There  may  have 
been  and  probably  were  grave  initial  errors  in  the  construction  of  some  of  the 
plants.  Money  was  doubtless  spent  freely  in  the  establishment  of  new  works 
before  the  old  ones  were  brought  to  a  paying  basis,  which  eventually  made 
their  finances  hopelessly  inadequate  to  the  complete  and  successful  operation 
of  the  plants  and  finally  led  to  their  sale  for  a  fraction  of  their  original 
cost. 

But  the  assets,  non-existent  ten  years  ago,  that  Clergue  has  left  are 
vast,  not  the  least  of  which  are  the  1,800,000  acres  of  land  already  earned, 
covered  with  splendid  forests  of  pine,  spruce,  maple,  birch  and  oak,  which 
when  cleared  is  well  adapted  for  farming,  and  much  of  it,  moreover,  miner- 
alized with  many  deposits  of  copper,  iron  and  gold  known  to  exist ;  then 
again,  there  is  the  absolute  control  of  the  water  power  of  Lake  Superior, 
since  the  company  controls  the  riparian  rights  above  and  below  the  rapids. 
These  are  assets  the  potentiality  of  which  for  gathering  riches  are,  as  Dr. 
Johnson  would  say,  "beyond  the  dreams  of  avarice." 


CHAPTER  XXII. 

PETER  white's  MONUMENT  IS  PRESOUE  ISLE. 

/^NE  of  the  most  beautiful  edifices  in  Marquette  is  the  chapel  built  of 
brown  stone,  which  adjoins  St.  Paul's  Cathedral.  It  was  built  by  Peter 
White  in  memory  of  his  son  Morgan.  This  chapel,  which  is  known  as  the 
Morgan  ]Memorial  Chapel,  has  never  been  consecrated,  as  it  is  the  wish 
of  Peter  White  that  it  should  be  available  at  all  times  for  the  use  of  the  guilds 
for  entertainments,  both  musical  and  dramatic.  Mr.  White  is  personally  an 
Episcopalian,  but  his  purse  from  his  slenderest  days  has  been  undenomina- 
tional. He  has  assisted  in  the  establishment  of  every  church  in  Marquette 
— Methodist,  Presbyterian,  Roman  Catholic,  Lutheran  and  others.  He  was 
instrumental,  too,  in  founding  St.  Luke's  hospital. 

Many  things  has  Peter  \Miite  done  for  the  upper  peninsula  of  Michi- 
gan ;  many  things  doubtless  will  he  yet  do.  Marquette  in  return  is  speak- 
ing of  a  monument  to  him,  but  his  real  monument  is  his  own  handiwork 
and  its  crowning  figure  is  Presque  Isle.  This  is  a  tract  of  land  densely 
wooded,  328  acres  in  extent,  and  is,  as  its  name  signifies,  "almost  an  island." 
It  lies  a  little  to  the  west  of  J\Iarquette  harbor.  It  has  a  rock-bound  shore 
which  lends  itself  to  rugged  and  picturesque  effects.  Some  of  the  forma- 
tions, particularly  Arch  rock,  are  most  unique. 

"What  a  park  it  would  make,"  soliloquized  Peter  White. 

But  alas,  the  government  had  reserved  Presque  Isle  for  light-house 
purposes  and  government  is  inclined  to  be  set  in  its  ways.  It  presents  the 
most  frowning  aspect  to  any  suggestion  of  change  from  its  customary 
method  of  doing  things.  It  has  a  special  and  particular  horror  of  estab- 
lishing a  precedent.  The  light-house  board,  having  established  a  station 
on  Presque  Isle,  that  island  was  forever  dedicated,  as  far  as  the  light-house 
board  was  concerned,  to  that  purpose.  The  light-house  board  would  re- 
gard any  suggestion  that  it  be  used  as  a  park  as  little  short  of  anarchy. 
Having  been  once  a  light-house  station  it  could  never  be  anything  else — 
things  go  on  the  same  year  in  and  year  out  in  Washington.  Peter  White 
■could  see  the  rock-ribbed,  green-topped  island  from  his  study. 


234  THE  HONORABLE  PETER  WHITE 

"Moffatt,"  said  he.  "why  can't  we  have  that  as  a  park?" 

Moffatt — he  was  the  peninsula's  congressman — was  speechless  at  the 
suggestion.  It  was  an  involuntary  reflection  of  the  attitude  of  the  light- 
house board  on  his  part.  He  knew  that  that  was  the  way  the  light-house 
board  would  act  when  the  subject  was  broached  to  it — stiffen  and  freeze  at 
once. 

"It  can't  be  done,"  said  Moft'att. 

Peter  White  packed  his  grip  and  went  to  Washington  and  saw  the 
members  of  the  committee  on  public  lands  of  the  house.  They  were  all 
very  glad  to  see  him — the  six  Democrats  and  seven  Republicans — but  they 
were  verv  sorry  indeed  that  nothing  could  be  done  for  him. 

"Can't  do  it,"  said  the  six  Democrats  and  seven  Republicans  in  chorus. 

"Will  vou  report  the  bill  favorably  if  the  senate  passes  it?"  asked  Peter 
White. 

As  there  was  no  hope  in  the  minds  of  the  committee  that  the  senate 
would  pass  it,  they  unanimously  agreed  to  this  proposition.  Peter  White 
went  into  Senator  Tom  Palmer's  room  in  the  senate  \wmg  of  the  capitol. 
Palmer  knew  him  of  old  and  was  genuinely  glad  to  see  him.  The  story  of 
Peter  White's  life  was  an  old  one  to  Palmer,  but  the  incidents  in  it  were 
ever  new.    He  told  what  he  wanted  as  simply  as  he  could. 

"I  am  going  to  get  a  couple  of  senators  in  here."  said  Palmer,  "and  you 
repeat  to  them  just  what  you  have  told  me." 

Palmer  went  out  and  accosted  two  or  three  senators.  Peter  related  his 
unselfish  mission  to  them.  The  story  wasn't  much,  but  the  man  back  of 
the  story  loomed  up  a  gigantic  figure  before  them.  It  wasn't  w^hat  he  said 
about  the  beauties  of  the  island  that  moved  them ;  it  was  the  knowledge  that 
here  was  an  original  character  that  had  hewed  a  city  out  of  a  wilderness ; 
that  had  cheerfully  submitted  to  untold  privation  and  hardship  in  order  to 
give  the  iron  frontier  the  benefit  of  a  civilized  life  ;  that  had  time  and  again 
plunged  into  a  desolate  waste  in  the  dead  of  winter  to  snatch  a  few  comforts 
for  his  fellow  beings.  It  wasn't  what  he  said  that  had  carried  them  away ;  it 
was  the  force  of  forty  years  of  incessant  toil  and  manly  living.  Senators 
straggled  in  by  twos  and  fours  and  met  the  northern  stranger.  In  the  face 
of  such  service  as  he  had  rendered  to  the  country,  Presque  Isle  seemed  to 
them  a  pretty  small  recompense.  Time-honored  practices  and  fear  of  prece- 
dents were  flung  aside,  and  the  bill  giving  Presque  Isle  to  the  city  of  Mar- 
quette for  park  purposes  was  passed  at  once.  The  breath  of  the  committee 
on  public  lands  of  the  house  was  nearly  taken  away,  but  the  members  were 
true  to  their  promise.     They  recommended  the  bill  and  it  passed  the  house 


•     PETER  WHITE'S   MONUMENT  IS   PRESQUE  ISLE  235 

promptly.     Peter  White  got  the  president  to  sign  it  and  he  returned  to  Alar- 
quette  with  a  draft  of  it  in  his  pocket. 

The  bill  contained  the  natural  provision  that  the  park  was  to  be  accepted 
by  the  council  of  Marquette  and  maintained  by  the  city.  The  usual  obstruc- 
tionist was  in  the  council.  He  made  a  liery  speech  in  which  he  declared  that 
the  park  would  benefit  only  the  rich  and  that  the  citizens  of  Marquette  would 
be  forever  saddled  with  the  expense  of  keeping  the  driveways  in  condition 
for  those  who  rode  in  carriages.  The  workingman  would  get  no  pleasure 
from  it  whatever.  He  pictured  the  oppressive  nature  of  the  burden  so  zeal- 
ously that  the  council  actually  decided  to  reject  the  gift.  At  the  next  meet- 
ing Peter  White  appeared  before  them.  He  was  sorely  vexed  that  the  city 
was  to  be  deprived  of  so  magnificent  a  pleasure  ground  through  the  short- 
sighted policy  of  a  council. 

'T  understand,  gentlemen,"  said  he,  "that  your  only  objection  to  accept- 
ing this  park  is  the  cost  of  its  maintenance." 

"Yes,  sir,"  said  the  spokesman. 

"I  will  not  argue  with  you  tonight  how  mistaken  you  are,"  said  Peter 
White,  "in  declining  a  gift  which  will  eventually  be  of  the  greatest  boon 
to  the  workingman  and  which  will  provide  an  eternal  pleasure  ground  for 
your  children  and  your  children's  children.  I  will,  however,  meet  the  only 
objection  which  you  have  raised.  If  you  will  accept  the  park  I  will  per- 
sonally pay  the  cost  of  its  improvement  and  maintenance  during  the  next 
five  years." 

The  park  was  accepted  instantly.  Usually  when  men  devote  great  sums 
of  money  to  improvements  of  this  character  an  ulterior  motive  is  likely  to 
obtain.  They  may  hold  contiguous  property  which  will  be  greatly  improved 
thereby.  But  Peter  White  held  no  property  contiguous  to  Presque  Isle. 
There  is  no  available  property  contiguous  to  Presque  Isle.  It  is  all  unre- 
claimed. The  first  thing  that  Peter  White  had  to  do  was  to  build  a  roadway 
a  mile  or  more  long  across  this  unreclaimed  stretch.  Water  to  a  depth  of  a 
foot  or  two  had  to  be  filled  in  and  the  roadway  built  upon  it.  That  cost  $30,- 
000.  The  improvement  and  maintenance  of  the  park  cost  $35,000  in  addition, 
a  generous  and  unselfish  contribution.  The  effect,  however,  has  been  to 
make  the  whole  city  of  Marquette  a  park.  Presque  Isle  is  a  lovely  spot 
today  and  has  an  extensive  and  well-kept  zoo  upon  it. 

In  1893  Peter  White  was  appointed  one  of  the  World's  Fair  commis- 
sioners, and  to  his  energy  is  due  the  extraordinary  mining  exhibit  that 
Michigan  made  at  the  fair.     Tons  of  metal  were  transported  to  the  fair,  and 


236  THE  HONORABLE  PETER  WHITE 

there  was  reproduced  out  of  the  material  strata  showing  the  formation  of 
mineral  deposits  in  the  earth. 

As  an  illustration  of  how  little  things  may  affect  the  current  of  one's 
life,  the  visit  of  Judge  A^tatthews  to  Marquette  is  given  as  evidence.  The  In- 
dians were  adepts  in  making  models  of  birch  bark  canoes,  but  the  gradual 
elimination  of  the  Indian  has  eliminated  also  their  handiwork.  Birch  bark 
canoes  are  becoming  very  scarce  but  the  judge  was  anxious  to  obtain  one. 
Seeing  a  beautiful  little  model  of  one  in  the  First  National  Bank,  he  asked 
Peter  White  where  he  might  get  one. 

"You  may  have  this  one,"  said  Mr.  White. 

"I  do  not  want  that  one,"  answered  the  judge.  "Where  will  you  get 
another  ?" 

"The  Indians  may  as  well  make  me  one,"  replied  Mr.  White.  "I've  got 
to  support  them  anyhow." 

The  judge  took  the  model  and  the  incident  might  have  been  regarded 
as  closed.  But  later  it  became  necessary  for  the  judge  to  appoint  a  master 
in  chancery  for  the  Pewabic  Copper  Co.,  and  the  parties  to  the  suit  were  un- 
able to  agree  upon  a  proper  person  to  act. 

"If  you  fail  to  reach  any  conclusion  I  have  a  man  in  mind,"  said  the 
judge.  "His  name  is  printed  on  that  canoe  with  dififerent  colored  porcu- 
pine quills  in  letters  an  inch  high — Peter  White,  Marquette." 

The  parties  agreed  to  the  selection  and  Peter  White  was  appointed 
master  in  chancery  for  the  Pewabic  Copper  Co.  He  later  sold  the  Pewabic 
mine  to  Mason  &  Smith,  of  Boston,  for  $710,000. 

When  the  state  of  Wisconsin  placed  a  marble  statue  to  Father  Mar- 
quette in  the  rotunda  of  the  capitol  at  Washington,  A.  E.  Archambeau,  pres- 
ident of  the  St.  Jean  Baptiste  society,  suggested  to  Peter  White  that  it  would 
be  fitting  to  have  a  bronze  replica  made  for  the  city  of  Marquette.  Mr. 
White  heartily  approved  of  it  and  undertook  the  labor  of  getting  the  neces- 
sary subscriptions.  The  statue  was  unveiled  at  Marquette,  July  15,  1897, 
with  appropriate  ceremonies,  Hon.  Don  M.  Dickinson  making  the  principal 
speech.  Later  Peter  White  put  an  oil  painting  of  Don  M.  Dickinson  in  the 
court  house  of  the  county  which  is  named  after  Mr.  Dickinson,  in  the 
upper  peninsula. 

When  the  Cleveland  company,  celebrated  the  semi-centennial  of  its  in- 
corporation in  1900,  it  was  Peter  White  who  made  the  chief  address.  He 
recounted  the  development  of  the  company  from  its  earliest  days ;  of  how 
it  was  the  only  company  that  was  prepared  to  ship  any  ore  through  the  canal 


PETER  WHITE'S   MONUMENT   IS   PRESQUE  ISLE 


237 


when  it  was  finished  in  1855,  and  how  it  had  continually  shipped  ore  through 
since,  more  than  1.000,000  tons  some  years,  and  how  it  had  extended  its  op- 
erations into  the  various  collateral  enterprises,  such  as  the  making  of  a  fine 
grade  of  charcoal  pig  iron,  and  had  become  the  greatest  of  all  the  independent 
companies  in  the  peninsula — meaning,  of  course,  by  independent  companies 
those  iron  mining  companies  which  are  not  affiliated  through  ownership  with 
steel-making  concerns.  For  this  is  a  form  of  ownership  which  has  latterly 
swallowed  a  number  of  individual  undertakings,  so  that  today  the  steel- 
making  companies  are  the  largest  owners  of  the  iron  mines  of  the  Lake  Su- 
perior country,  and  the  largest  owners  of  lake  vessels  as  well.     He  told  also 


FElEk    WHITE   DELIVERIXG  THE    ADDRESS   AT   THE   CLEVELAND   CO.  S    SEMI-CEXTEXXIAL 


of  the  struggles  of  the  pioneers,  of  which  he  was  the  participant,  and  of 
which  he  is  the  living  witness — and  it  was  very,  very  interesting  indeed. 

The  Universitv  of  Michigan  conferred  upon  Peter  White  the  title  of 
M.  A.  in  1900.  The  new^spapers  had  it  LL.  D.,  which  caused  Mr.  George 
H.  Russel,  of  Detroit,  to  write  to  him  as  follows : 

'T  have  some  misgivings  and  fear  that  the  new  title  which  comes  to  you 
will  bring  with  it  such  added  dignity  that  you  must  necessarily  refrain  from 
being  the  same  old  Peter  White  and  give  up  your  good  French  stories  and 
other  things  and  put  on,  as  becomes  a  learned  doctor  of  the  law,  a  black 
stock,  silk  hat  and  cotton  gloves." 


238  THE  HONORABLE  PETER  WHITE 

In  the  spring-  of  1902  Peter  \\'hite  was  nominated  for  regent  of  the 
University  of  ^Michigan  and  was  elected  the  first  ]\Ionday  in  April  by  the 
highest  number  of  votes  of  anv  man  on  the  ticket. 

No  man  has  greater  influence  in  Washington  than  Peter  White ;  nor  is 
anv  man  more  welcome  to  the  senators  and  representatives.  He  has  kept 
them  up  half  the  night  with  his  stories.  General  Grosvenor  relates  an  inci- 
dent at  a  dinner  party  where  he  and  several  other  representatives  attended 
with  Peter  White,  and  they  were  surprised  to  discover  after  listening  to  a 
number  of  his  I'rench  stories,  that  it  was  two  o'clock  in  the  morning.  Dr. 
H.  C.  Potter  sa\s  that  lie  never  knew  a  man  who  could  tell  a  story  that  was 
funny  enough  to  stop  a  railroad  train  until  he  met  Peter  White.  \\'hether 
he  is  entertaining  senators  and  representatives  or  stretching  his  legs  under 
the  mahogany  of  the  president  of  the  L'nited  States  at  the  ^^'hite  Plouse, 
which  he  frequently  visits,  he  is  not  telling  stories  for  the  story's  sake  alone. 
There  is  always  some  ulterior  purpose,  some  kind  intention,  some  unselfish 
act  for  the  betterment  of  the  upper  peninsula. 

It  has  been  a  labor  of  love  on  his  part  to  clierish  and  develop  the  little 
library  which  he  started  in  1872.  It  grew  gradually,  new  quarters  being 
provided  as  the  expanse  of  the  library  exceeded  the  limits  of  the  old  one, 
until  he  set  aside  a  portion  of  his  bank  building  for  the  use  of  the  library, 
and  after  decorating  it,  offering  its  use  free  to  the  city.  But  the  library 
passed  from  larger  to  larger  quarters  imtil  it  became  apparent  that  it  would 
need  a  home  of  its  own.  Through  the  generosity  of  a  few  leading  citizens, 
headed  by  Peter  White,  a  new  library  building  was  erected  and  dedicated  to 
the  public  in  September,  1904.  The  new  structure,  which  is  known  as  the 
Peter  White  Library,  is  an  imposing  building  of  Bedford  limestone.  It  was 
erected  at  a  cost  of  $47,000,  exclusive  of  the  land.  The  Bedford  limestone 
is  white  and  makes  a  striking  building  with  the  red  tile  roof.  The  interior 
is  of  marble  and  weathered  oak  and  the  whole  effect  is  beautiful.  It  is  ex- 
pected that  the  library  will  answer  the  requirements  of  Marquette  for  a  great 
many  years.  The  city  of  ]\larquette  placed  a  marble  bust  of  Peter  White 
in  the  library  in  honor  of  the  founder.  Some  years  before  when  Andrew 
Carnegie  had  called  upon  Peter  \\diite  during  a  visit  to  the  iron  mines,  Peter 
had  suggested  to  him  the  founding  of  a  library  in  ]\Iarquette,  and  oft'ered  to 
surrender  the  name  of  Peter  White  if  he  would  establish  one.  But  Carnegie, 
willing  as  he  is  to  give  libraries  to  deserving  communities,  would  not  listen 
to  it.  He  felt  that  Marquette  belonged  to  Peter  White  and  that  she  had  been 
well  cared  for  in  that  particular  respect  by  him. 

There  has  been  but  latelv  established  at  Marquette  its  new  normal  school 


PETER  WHITE'S   MOXUAIENT  IS   PRESQUE  ISLE 


239 


for  the  upper  peninsula.  The  buildings  are  as  yet  but  three  in  number,  com- 
prising" the  main  normal  school  building,  a  dormitory  and  a  science  hall.  The 
science  hall  is  known  at  The  Peter  Wdiite  Hall  of  Science,  a  just  and  graceful 
recognition  of  the  continued,  unwearied  and  practical  benefits  this  rare,  and 
let  us  hope  typical  American  citizen,  has  planned  and  secured  for  the  growth 
and  culture  of  Marquette.  This  honor  came  to  Peter  White  unsought.  He 
had  given  a  thousand  dollars  a  year  for  a  period  of  five  years  to  the  art  de- 
partment of  the  normal  school,  but  Principal  D.  B.  Waldo  announced  that 
the  selection  of  a  name  for  the  science  hall  had  not  been  dictated  by  any 
monetary  consideration.  When  this  science  hall  was  dedicated  men  from 
all  parts  of  the  country  came  to  attend.     The\'  came,  not  to  dedicate  a  new 


PEIEK    WHITE   I'UiU.lC   LIUKARV. 


branch  of  an  educational  system,  but  to  see  an  honor  done  to  Peter  White. 
"That  is  all  I  came  for,"  said  Don  M.  Dickinson,  bluntly. 

Dickinson  had  suggested  the  year  before  that  there  should  be  placed  at 
the  entrance  of  Presque  Isle,  where  it  would  be  seen  of  all  men  entering  upon 
that  beautiful  spot,  a  colossal  bronze  statue  of  Peter  White.  "Let  us  have  the 
sturdy  figure,"  said  he.  "upon  the  sturd\-  legs  with  a  kindly  face  in  colossal 
brass  and  bronze  at  the  entrance  of  the  park." 

It  was  to  this  dedication  that  Dr.  H.  C.  Potter  wrote  that  there  had  long 
been  a  conviction  in  his  mind  that  if  there  had  been  no  Peter  White  there 
would  have  been  no  upper  peninsula. 


240  .  THE  HONORABLE  PETER  WHITE 

But  it  was  left  to  the  late  Dr.  Wm.  H.  Drummond  of  Montreal,  a  life- 
long friend,  to  say  the  rare  and  proper  thing,  to  limn  him  in  a  line:  "Strong- 
in  his  gentleness,  wise  in  his  simplicity,  practical  in  his  enthusiasm,  pioneer  in 
an  age  of  pioneers,  the  man  whom  children  on  the  street  know  only  as  Peter 
White,  stands  today,  it  seems  to  me,  the  very  highest  ideal  of  that  civilization 
of  which  the  American  people  are  so  proud.  When  such  men  build  the 
foundations,  easy  it  is  to  raise  the  superstructure,  and  the  trail  Peter  White 
has  cut  through  life  is  blessed  by  acts  of  private  charity  and  deeds  of  public 
devotion  that  will  serve  as  a  guide  to  those  who  follow  in  the  footsteps  of  a 
truly  great,  and  above  all,  good  man."  Drummond  dedicated  Johnny 
Courteau  to  Peter  White  with  the  exquisite  lines  from  The  Merchant  of  Ven- 
ice: "The  dearest  friend  to  me,  the  kindest  man,  the  best  condition'd  and  un- 
wearied spirit  in  doing  courtesies."* 

*Following"  is  one  of  Dr.  Drummond"s  poems  about  Peter  White : 

PIERRE  LEBLANX. 

Ev'y  State  upon  de  Union,  w'en  dey  write  her  up  today, 
Have  so  many  kin'  of  story  not  many  understan' ; 
But  if  you  lissen  me  you  can  very  quickly  see 
How  it's  easy  t'ing  remember  de  State  of  Michigan. 
An'  me  I  know  it's  true,  cos  ma  fader  tole  me  so. 
How  dat  voyageur  dey're  callin'  Pere  Marquette 
Come  a-sailin'  hees  canoe,  wit'  de  Injun  from  de  Soo, 
On  de  year  so  long  ago  dat   I   forget. 

But  wan  t'ing  I  can  say,  w'en  Marquette  is  reach  de  shore 

W  here  w'at  you  call  hee  statute  is  stickin'  up  today 

Dere's  a  lettle  French  boy  dere  say,  "Comment  ca  va,  mon  pere. 

You  been  so  long  a-comin'   I  hope  you're  goin'  to  stay." 

An'  he  show  heem  safes'  place  w'ere  he  put  hees  birch  canoe, 

An'  de  way  he  talk  an'  boss  de  Injun  man. 

Wall,  it's  very  easy  see  dat  between  you'se'f  an"  me 

Dat  leetle   feller's  born  to  coniman'. 

An'  Marquette  he's  moche  surpisc  at  de  smart  boy  he  has  got, 
W'ere  he  come  from,  w'at's  hees  name,  and  ev'ry  thing ; 
But  de  boy  he  go  ahead  feexin'  up  de  camp  an'  bed, 
For  he  always  treat  hees  fricn'  jus'  lake  de  King. 
Marciuette  he  den  fin'  out  w'at  de  lettle  feller  know. 
An'  w'at  he  never  see,  an'  all  de  Grosse  Pointe  law ; 
How  it's  mixit  up  so  moche  ev'ry  body's  scare  to  touch 
An'  de  name  he  call  hese'f  is  Pierre  LeBlanc. 

Wall,  Marquette  he's  not  a  fool,  so  he's  savin"  "Au  revoir," 
P'or  leetle  Pierre  LeBlanc's  too  wide  awake. 
No  chance  discoveree  so  far  as  he  can  see 
Less  he  fin'  some  newer  place  upon  de  lake. 
So  dere  he  stay  upon  de  shore,  de  lettle  Pierre, 


PETER  WHITE'S  MONUMENT  IS   PRESQUE  ISLE  241 

During  the  last  ten  or  twelve  years  Peter  \\'hite  has  been  the  president 
of  the  Mackinac  Island  State  Park  Commission.  Under  his  management 
this  island  has  been  literally  transformed.     It  is  probably  without  exception 

An'  buil'  de  fines'  log  house  he  can  get. 

Purty  soon  he  have  a  town  on  de  place  he  settle  down, 

An'  call  it  for  hees  frien'  M'sieu  Marquette. 

But  de  folk  he's  bringin'  dere  fin'  it  hard  w'en  winter  come 

An'  ev'ry  place  is  pilin'  wit'  de  snow. 

Den  who  is  volunteer  bring  de  letter  'way  up  here 

From  de  contree  lyin'  off  dere  down  below  ? 

Was  it  feller  six  foot  high  is  do  de  job, 

Carry  letter  all  de  waj^   from   Canadaw, 

Wit'  hees  fourteen  dog-traineau  bangin'  t'roo  de  ice  an'  snow? 

No  sirce.     It's  only  leetle  Pierre  LeBlanc. 

But  the  way  he  treats  hees  dog  dey  say  is  very  bad, 

Many  folk  is  takin'  all  about  it  yet. 

So  of  course  dey're  comin'  back  lak  de  racer  on  de  track 

For  hees  dog  dey  don't  get  not'ing  till  dey're  passin'  on  Marquette. 

Wall,  I  s'pose  he's  very  poor,  Pierre  LeBlanc, 

An'  de  pay  he's  gettin'   for  it's   purty  small, 

An'  he  got  to  eat  hese'f,  or  niebbe  he  was  lef. 

So  we  never  get  our  letter  after  all. 

An'  den  he  start  to  grow,  an'  de  way  he  work  dey  say 

For  de  folk  on  ole  I\Iarquette  an'  all  aroun' 

jNIak'   heem  very  populaire   on   de   contree   ev'ry  w'ere. 

Till  he  t'ink  he  was  de  beeges'  man  in  town. 

Den  hees  head  begin  to  swell,  'cos  my  fader  tole  me  so, 

And  first  t'ing,  he  was  puttin'  on  de  beeges'  style  he  can. 

But  he  ought  to  be  ashame  for  de  way  he  change  hees  name 

To  Peter  White,  an'  try  to  pass  for  only  Yankee  man. 

Mcbbe  lettle  Injun,  too,  can't  say  for  dat  mese'f. 

For  he  always  spike  sauvage  de  same  as  Ojibway. 

An'  w'en  he  want  to  swear  it's  enough  to  raise  de  hair 

To  hear  heem   sayin'   "Wabigoon  ah — goozah — goozah — gay." 

An'  lak  de  Injun,  too,  very  hard  to  tell  hees  age 

For  he  mus'  be  over  bonder  dough  he's  lookin'  forty  year 

An'  he's  alway  on  de  rush,  you  can't  lose  heem  on  de  bush. 

An'  he's  eye  is  lak  de  eagle,  strong  an'  clear. 

An'  he's  leevin'  wit'  us  now,  Pierre  LeBlanc  dit  Peter  White, 

But  he  won't  say  not'in'  more  about  hees  name 

Let  heem  try  it  if  he  can,  makin'  out  he's  Yankee  man. 

But  never  min'  for  Pierre  LeBlanc  he's  good  man  jus"  de  same. 

So  if  you  want  to  know  de  State  of  Michigan 

Very  easy  to  remember — in  case  you  might  forget 

Only  two  man  make  her  go,  'cos  ma  fader  tole  me  so, 

An'  wan  is  M'sieu   Pierre  LeBlanc,  de  oder  Pere  Marquette. 

— W.  H.  D. 


242  THE  HONORABLE  PETER  WHITE 

the  most  beautiful  spot  on  the  chain  of  lakes,  and  the  most  liberal  policy 
dominates  its  management.  The  little  village  that  was  there  when  Peter 
White  first  visited  it  in  1845  is  there  yet,  quaint,  curious  and  insular  ;  but 
all  else  is  changed.  It  is  a  perfect  fairyland  now  and  is  the  summer  resort 
of  the  north. 

Does  anyone  imagine  that  there  would  have  been  any  celebration  at 
Sault  Ste.  Marie  in  August.  1905,  to  commemorate  the  fiftieth  anniversary  of 
the  opening  of  the  first  canal  which  made  navigation  possible  between  Lake 
Superior  and  the  lower  lakes,  had  it  not  been  for  Peter  White?  There  would 
not.  It  was  an  opportiuiity  to  be  seized  upon,  but  the  chief  beneficiaries  of 
the  iron  companies  and  vessel  interests  were  too  busy  with  their  own  affairs 
to  give  it  thought.  But  Peter  White  had  been  in  the  Lake  Superior 
countrv  before  the  canal  and  he  has  been  there  since.  He  knew  what  one 
would  be  without  the  other.  He  knew  also  that  a  celebration  was  the  very 
thing  to  bring  the  commercial  importance  of  Sault  Ste.  Alarie  before  congress 
and  the  nation  to  the  end  that  the  canal  might  continually  be  developed.  He 
began  his  plans  for  the  celebration  as  early  as  1902.  This  untiring  and  un- 
selfish soul  went  to  Washington  and  saw  congress  about  it.  He  told  con- 
gress that  Sault  Ste.  J\Iarie  belongs  to  the  nation,  and  that  it  was  the  iron 
in  the  Lake  Superior  hills  that  was  making  the  industrial  blood  of  the  coun- 
tr}  run  a  healthy. red.  In  twos,  in  fours,  and  in  committees  he  told  the  sen- 
ators and  representatives  about  it,  and  he  even  told  the  president,  producing 
his  figures  to  prove  the  statement.  Day  after  day  he  paced  the  corridor  lead- 
ing from  the  senate  to  the  house  and  was  finally  promised  an  appropriation 
if  he  would  bring  the  subject  to  the  attention  of  congress  at  the  next  session. 
Early  in  1905  he  went  to  Washington  to  have  that  promise  kept,  but  the 
crv  of  economy  was  there  ahead  of  him.  The  senators  would  not  listen  to 
an  appropriation.    Peter  W'hite  was  disappointed  but  not  defeated. 

There  was  a  little  dinner  one  night,  just  a  friendly,  informal  affair  in 
the  senate  restaurant,  that  w^as  attended  by  Speaker  Cannon,  Senator  Bur- 
rows and  Congressman  Hemenway,  chairman  of  the  conference  committee, 
and  others.  Peter  WTiite,  who  dearly  loves  the  French-Canadian  character, 
was  a  guest  at  this  dinner,  and  he  told  a  great  many  stories,  both  humorous 
and  pathetic,  of  life  in  the  peninsula,  and  once  in  a  while  he  let  a  remark  drop 
to  show  wdiat  a  tremendously  solemn  thing  the  iron  business  of  the  Lhiited 
States  has  become,  with  its  magnitude  and  its  responsibilities,  and  how  some 
day  in  the  near  future  another  lock  would  be  needed  at  Sault  Ste.  Marie  to 
facilitate  the  feeding  to  the  iron  trade  of  its  raw  material,  iron  ore. 


PETER  WHITE'S  MONUMENT  IS   PRESQUE  ISLE  243 

"I  g^uess  we  better  give  Peter  White  an  appropriation,"  said  Speaker 
Cannon. 

"Nothing  less  than  $10,000  will  do  any  good."  said  Peter  White. 

"Well,"  said  Hemenway,  who  was  drafting  the  general  deficiency  bill, 
■"if  you'll  get  the  signatures  of  every  Michigan  senator  and  representative 
that  Michigan  wants  this  appropriation,  we  will  put  it  in  the  bill." 

Peter  White  quickly  secured  the  signatures  of  all  but  one  representa- 
tive, who  after  a  considerable  search,  was  found  in  an  out-of-the-wav  cor- 
ner very  busily  engaged  in  writing.  He  was  shown  the  paper,  but  after 
reading  it  with  a  very  ironical  expression  on  his  face  returned  it  without 
his  signature,  saying  that  he  had  spoken  against  the  Lewis  &  Clark  cele- 
bration and  the  Jamestown  Exposition  and  could  not  therefore  with  good 
grace  vote  for  an  appropriation  for  his  own  state.  Peter  cordially  endorsed 
the  representative's  course  but  added  that  the  cases  were  by  no  means  anal- 
ogous, that  while  the  expositions  were  comparatively  local  affairs  the  Sault 
Ste.  Marie  canal  was  a  national  institution  and  that  for  the  nation  to  cele- 
brate its  semi-centennial  was  fitting  and  proper.  He  became  eloquent  as  he 
enlarged  upon  his  theme,  and  when  he  concluded  the  representative  had 
nothing  more  to  say.  He  signed  the  bill  and  Peter  White  hurried  back  to 
Hemenway  with  it.  The  appropriation  was  inserted  in  the  bill  and  passed, 
but  the  ink  had  scarcely  dried  upon  the  measure  when  the  clock  struck 
twelve  and  congress  had  adjourned  for  the  session. 

With  his  bill  in  his  hand  Peter  White  went  to  Lansing.  He  has  privi- 
leges at  Lansing  because  he  has  earned  them.  The  legislature  went  into 
open  session  to  hear  him.  He  told  his  story  simply,  told  of  the  scope  of  Mich- 
igan's great  contribution  to  the  material  welfare  of  the  country ;  told  what 
congress  had  done  and  asked  that  Michigan  participate  in  the  proposed  cele- 
bration and  take  charge  of  it.  He  did  not  tell  them  that  he  had  spent  freely 
of  his  own  time  and  money  to  bring  it  about.  But  the  legislature  saw  it. 
appreciated  it  and  appropriated  $15,000.  The  governor  of  Michigan  ap- 
pointed Peter  White  president  of  the  commission  to  conduct  the  celebration. 

Then  Peter  White  appointed  Charles  T.  Harvey,  who  built  the  first 
canal,  chief  marshal  of  the  celebration,  a  fitting,  thoughtful  and  sensible  thing 
to  do,  and  then  he  went  among  his  friends,  the  iron  companies,  and  asked 
them  to  contribute  to  its  success.  They  all  did  so  with  pleasure,  giving 
not  only  money  but  offering  ships  as  well. 

The  Sault  Ste.  ]\Iarie  Canal  Semi-Centennial  celebration  is  the  latest 
triumph  of  Peter  White.  It  focused  the  attention  of  the  country  upon  this 
canal  which,  while  geographically  remote,  is  commercially  the  most  impor- 


244  THE  HONORABLE  PETER  WHITE 

tant  artificial  waterway  in  the  world.  The  dissemination  of  general  knowl- 
edge among  the  people  upon  this  point  will  do  more  than  anything  else  to  in- 
spire a  liberal  policy  by  the  national  government  towards  the  waterways  of 
the  great  lakes.  Approximately  $50,000,000  has  been  spent  on  lake  channels 
by  the  government,  but  the  iron  ore  alone  which  has  been  transported  along 
them  has  already  exceeded  $1,000,000,000  in  value.  In  fact  the  saving  in 
freight  rates  on  Lake  Superior  alone  in  a  single  season  is  equal  to  the  total 
sum  expended  by  the  general  government  on  the  whole  chain  of  lakes  since 
it  begun  the  improvement  of  its  waterways.  Since  the  canal  was  built 
450,268,919  tons  of  freight  of  various  kinds  have  passed  through  it,  of 
which  349,024,457  tons  have  been  the  movement  of  the  past  twelve  years. 

Peter  White  returned  to  Marquette  to  face  the  greatest  sorrow  he  has 
ever  known — the  death  of  his  wife,  who  for  forty-eight  years  had  been  his 
constant  companion  and  helpmate,  and  w^ho  had  presided  with  infinite  tact 
and  graciousness  over  an  ideal  home.  He  bore  this  great  afl^iction  with 
noble  fortitude  and  resignation  as  he  had  borne  before  the  loss  of  five  of 
his  children,  whose  fingers  were  tightly  clutched  on  the  strings  that  lead  to 
the  heart. 

And  thus  we  bring  our  hero  down  to  the  present  day,  full  of  years  and 
of  honors  and  of  sorrow,  too,  for  that  is  the  heritage  of  life. 


CHAPTER  XXIII. 


THE  SAULT   CANAL  SEMI-CENTENNIAL   CELEBRATION. 

It  IS  a  very  common  thing  for  a  lec- 
turer   to    illustrate    by    stereopticon 
images    the   places    that   he   has    visited, 
the  scenes  that  he  has  witnessed  or  the 
things  that  he  has  done ;  but  how  rare  it 
is  for  a  speaker  to  illustrate  his  lecture 
with   the   actual   thing   itself !     Right   at 
the   base   of   the   great   Weitzel   lock    at 
Sault   Ste.   Marie   Peter  White  was   de- 
tailing the  growth  of  lake  commerce,  its 
magnitude  and  wonderful  expansion,  the 
development  of  vessel  property  from  the 
small    schooner    to    the    giant    steamer, 
CHARLES  T.  HARVEv,  CHIEF  MARSHAL,    wlicu  just  as  lic  spokc  tlic  stcamcr  Sax- 
on, upbound,  entered  the  canal  with  the 
ease  and  silence  and  caution  that  had  marked  the  passage  of  the  Indian  canoe 
half  a  ceiitury  ago.     The  speaker's  back  was  turned  and  he  did  not  see  the 
living  stereopticon  that  was  illustrating  his  very  words,  but  the  thousands 
>vho  were  facing  him  saw  it  and  were  greatly  impressed. 

The  Semi-Centennial  celebration  of  the  completion  of  the  first  canal  at 
Sault  Ste.  ]\Iarie  to  commerce  was  held  on  Wednesday  and  Thursday,  Aug. 
2  and  3,  1905,  and  was  attended  by  several  thousand  citizens.  The  Semi- 
Centennial  celebration  was  under  the  direction  of  a  commission  consisting 
of  Peter  White  of  Marquette,  Mich.,  Horace  M.  Oren  of  Sault  Ste.  Marie, 
and  I\Ir.  Charles  Moore  of  Detroit.  Mr.  Charles  T.  Harvey,  who  built  the 
first  canal,  and  whose  locks  were  continuously  in  use  from  1855  to  1887, 
acted  as  chief  marshal  of  the  occasion.  The  attendance  of  vessel  and  iron 
ore  interests  was  surprisingly  small,  being  represented  only  by  W.  C. 
Mather,  J.  H.  Sheadle,  Capt.  J.  C.  Gilchrist,  William  Livingstone,  Capt. 
James  Stone  of  Cleveland;  John  Russel,  Detroit,  and  J.  C.  Evans,  Buffalo. 
Miss  Betty  Poe,  daughter  of  the  late  General  Poe,  was  a  guest  of  honor. 


246 


THE  HONORABLE  PETER  WHITE 


At  sunrise  on  Wednesday  morning  a  naval  salute  was  given  by  the  govern- 
ment fleet  in  the  harbor.  At  nine  o'clock  the  band  concert  began  in  the  Old 
Fort  Brady  park  on  the  canal  front,  and  was  participated  in  by  the  regi- 
mental band.  First  United  States  Infantry,  the  band  of  the  Third  ^Michigan 
National  Guard,  and  the  Calumet  &  Hecla  band.  Simultaneously  began 
the  naval  parade  through  the  locks,  making  a  very  effective  display,  as  will 
be  seen  from  the  accompanying  photographs.  This  parade  was  under  the 
command  of  Peter  White,  created  admiral  of  the  dav.  and  whose  flag  flew 


THE   FLAG   OF   THE    ADMIRAL   OF   THE   DAY. 

The  Peter  White  flag  presented  to  the  [Marigold  by  Henry  'Si.  Campbell  and  flown 
at  the  foremast  of  that  vessel  during  the  celebration. 


from  the  masthead  of  the  Marigold.  It  was  unfortunate  that  there  were 
no  giant  freighters  to  join  the  procession,  but  notwithstanding  their  absence 
the  effect  was  impressive.  The  first  squadron  consisted  of  the  United  States- 
steamers  Marigold,  Tuscarora,  Morrell  and  Mackinac,  accompanied  by  a 
fleet  of  other  vessels.     These  vessels  were  locked  through  the  great  Poe 


THE  SAULT  CANAL  SEMI-CENTENx\IAL  CELEBRATION 


247 


lock.  It  is  interesting-  to  state  that  they  were  all  locked  through  at  once. 
They  then  proceeded  across  the  St.  iMary's  river  above  the  rapids  and 
passed  down  through  the  Canadian  ship  canal  and  locks.  The  parade  was 
then  joined  by  every  conceivable  craft  in  the  harlior  passing  in  review  and 
exchanging  salutes  with  the  gunboat  Wolverine  and  the  Michigan  Naval 
Reserve  steamer  Yantic. 

The  military  parade  of  the  afternoon  was  under  the  direction  of  Mr. 
Charles  T.  Harvey,  chief  marshal.  It  was  headed  by  the  First  United  States 
Infantry  band  and  followed  by  a  battalion  of  regulars  from  Fort  Brady. 
The  balance  of  the  military  display  was  made  up  of  the   state  troops  of 


ADMIRAL    PETER    WHITE  S    FLAGSHIP    MARIGOLD. 


Michigan.  It  was  interesting  to  note  the  difference  in  deportment  between 
the  state  troops  and  the  regulars.  The  regulars  marched  with  their  eyes 
straight  ahead,  glancing  neither  to  the  right  nor  left  and  apparently  obliv- 
ious to  the  fact  that  they  were  on  parade.  The  state  troops,  however,  had 
eyes  for  everyone  along  the  sidewalk. 

Vice  President  Fairbanks  with  Governor  Warner,  of  Michigan,  headed 
the  list  of  carriages  which  contained  the  distinguished  visitors,  the  members 
of  the  senate  and  the  house  of  representatives  of  Michigan  and  other  state 
officials.  The  parade  was  reviewed  by  the  vice  president  of  the  United 
States  and  the  governor  of  Michigan  from  the  reviewing  stand  at  Old  Fort 
Brady  on  the  canal. 


248 


THE  HONORABLE  PETER  WHITE 


The  latter  part  of  the  afternoon  was  given  over  to  an  exhibition  of 
Indian  Hfe  by  a  few  Ojibway  Indians,  who  had  built  their  tepees  on  the 
canal  park.  The  Indians  all,  men,  women  and  children,  presented  an  ad- 
mirable appearance.  Their  performance  was  under  the  general  direction 
of  Mr.  W.  O.  Armstrong  of  Montreal,  who  has  done  much  to  preserve  the 
record  of  Indian  life  as  it  existed  in  the  peninsula  prior  to  the  advent  of 
the  white  man. 


...^■'■'\ 


9^  J:tj,n 


THE    LAND    PARADE,    SAULT    STE.    MARIE    CANAL    SEMI-CENTENNIAL    CELEBRATION. 

Wednesday  was  given  over  to  band  concerts  and  fireworks.  It  must  be 
admitted  that  in  this  particular  the  Canadians  did  far  better  than  the  Amer- 
icans. They  gave  a  magnificent  display  of  fireworks,  which  was  enjoyed 
by  thousands  long  after  the  last  rocket  had  been  shot  off  on  the  United 
States  side.  As  a  concluding  piece  the  Lake  Superior  Corporation  illum- 
ined its  great  rail  mill  from  one  end  to  the  other  with  innumerable  incan- 
descent lights,  marking  the  outline  of  the  building  completely  and  repeating 
it  on  the  following  evening  also. 

The  commemorative  exercises  were  held  in  the  speakers'  stand  in  the 


THE  SAULT   CANAL  SEMI-CENTENNIAL  CELEBRATION 


249 


south  park  of  the  canal  on  Thursday.  The  invocation  was  given  by  Arch- 
deacon Arthur  H.  Lord  of  Sault  Ste.  IMarie,  and  in  the  absence  of  Mayor 
Frank  Perry,  the  Hon.  Chase  S.  Osborne  of  Sault  Ste.  Marie  delivered  the 
address  of  welcome.  Mr.  Osborne  was  especially  felicitous  and  happy  in 
his  remarks,  particularly  in  reference  to  the  great,  black,  business  bateaux 
of  10,000  tons  that  have  taken  the  place  of  canoes  of  the  vovageurs.* 

The  Hon.  Peter  White,  who  presided,  then  introduced  Gov.  Fred  M. 


INDIAN    TEPEES    AT    SAULT    CANAL    SEMI-CENTENNIAL    CELEBRATION. 


*Feter    White   in    presiding    used    a    gavel    made    from    the    timbers    of    the    old    steamer    Inde- 
pendence  which   was   presented   to    him    on   the    day    of   the    celebration   with   the    following    poem: 

For  sure  mebba,  I  don'  do  right,  to  sen'  pres'sen'  to   Petare   W'ite, 
Of    co'rs'    he's    man    I've    heard    a    good    deal,  but    jus'    de    sam'    I    halways    feel 
Dat  w'en   you   try  to   'blige   a   man,  'tis   bes'   furs   t'ing   to   onnerstan' 
Wedder  dat  man  weel  welcom'  you,  een  w'at  you   say  or  try  to  do. 
An'   so — but   den,   oh  dear,    L'enfant! — I    of 'en    heard   of   Pierre    Le    Blanc; 
He's    kin'    of   man   who'll    halways    greet    de    poores'    purson    h'on  de    street, 
An'    so   ma   frien',    I    don'    feel    frade,    to  spick   with    dis    beeg    ace  o'    spade. 
Nor  h'am   I   frade   he'll   fin'  eet   hard,   to   tak'   dis'   token   of   regard 
From  wan   who  knows   heem  but  een   nam',  but  t'inks   he's  "W'ite   man"  jus'   de 
sam'. 


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252  THE  HONORABLE  PETER  WHITE 

Warner  of  Michigan,  who  read  an  address  upon  the  subject  "The  State  of 
Michigan  and  the  Building  of  St.  Mary's  Canal,"  saying : 

"The  great  work,  the  completion  of  which  we  are  now  commemorating, 
is  one  of  the  connecting  links  between  the  governments  of  our  Nation  and 
of  our  State.  Fostered  by  both,  the  construction  and  improvement  of  the 
St.  Mary's  Ship  Canal  have  borne  no  small  part  in  maintaining  the  interest 
which  the  government  at  Washington  has  in  our  commonwealth.  As  we 
look  upon  conditions  as  they  exist  today,  and  consider  the  wonderful  devel- 
opment of  our  State  and  commercial  relations  which  have  been  established 
between  Michigan  and  the  entire  world  beyond  our  borders,  we  too  often 
overlook  the  agencies  which  have  brought  about  these  results.  In  the  con- 
summation of  great  enterprises  and  in  the  enjoyment  of  the  benefits  result- 
ing from  them,  the  difficulties  overcome  and  the  courage  and  energy  of  the 
men  who  champion  them  are  too  often  forgotten.  This  is  especially  true 
as  to  the  construction  of  this  canal.  How  seldom  do  we  now  think  of  the 
discouragement  with  which  its  promoters  were  well  nigh  overcome,  and 
the  splendid  faith  and  untiring  perseverance  of  the  men  who,  under  most 
unfavorable  circumstances,  could  still  see  hope  of  success  and  promise  of 
achievement. 

"It  is  because  of  this  that  the  setting  apart  of  an  occasional  day  for 
the  purpose  of  perpetuating  in  our  memories  the  great  events  in  the  State's 
•development  may  wisely  be  encouraged,  and  it  is  to  the  credit  of  the  last 
legislature  that  it  made  an  appropriation  for  the  proper  participation  by 
the  State  in  this  celebration. 

"The  act  of  the  Legislature  in  making  the  appropriation  was  a  fitting 
recognition  of  the  importance  of  the  canal  in  the  development  of  the  great 
material  and  industrial  interests  of  Michigan.  When,  in  the  settlement  of 
the  difficulty  between  the  States  of  Michigan  and  Ohio,  that  part  of  the 
State  now  embraced  in  vvdiat  is  known  as  the  Upper  Peninsula  was  practi- 
cally forced  on  the  State,  the  country  was  believed  to  be  of  little  value,  and 
it  was  with  great  reluctance  that  Michigan  accepted  the  territory  in  lieu  of 
the  valuable  tract  ceded  to  Ohio.     What  a  revelation  there  has  been  since 

So,  Pierre  Le  Blanc,  or  Petare  W'te,  for  sure  you'll   geev  me  great  delight, 
Eef   you'll  accep'    dis   leetle    cane,   dis  paper   knif,   wit    nice   h'oak    grain, 
An'   las'   of   h'all,   dis   gavel,   too,   w'ich   1    'av'   mad'   express   for   you. 
Dey  each   wan   formed — now,   ain't  dat   queer — formed   part   of   dat  h'ole   pioneer, 
Dat   steamed   de   lake — I   jus'   forget — I   tink   'tween  .here   an'   h'ole    Marquette, 
For    sure    dat's    honder  year    ago,    you's    here    dat  tam',    so   you    mus'   know; 
For    I    'av'   heard,   you're    purty   h'ole,    tree    honder    year    so    I've    been    tole, 
Excuse    to    me,    for    spick    of    h'age,    dough    dat's    de   garmin'    of    de    sage. 
An'  wan    I   know  you   wear  jus'  right,  for  peep'  h'all   say  dat,   Petare   W'ite. 

H'am  yours   vera   trula, 

MoisE  St.   Pierre. 


THE  SAULT   CANAL   SEMI-CENTENNIAL   CELEBRATION 


253 


that  time  to  the  people  of  Michigan  and  of  the  country  as  to  the  marvelous 
resources  and  untold  wealth  of  the  then  despised  Upper  Peninsula.  Here 
are  located  the  greatest  copper  producing  mines  of  the  world.  Here  are 
to  be  found  well-nigh  exhaustless  deposits  of  iron  ore.  Here,  notwithstand- 
ing the  carrjing  on  of  extensive  lumbering  operations  for  many  years,  still 
exist  vast  forests  of  valuable  timber.  And  now  this  peninsula  is  astonish- 
ing the  people  below  the  Straits  by  the  rapid  advancement  of  its  not  incon- 
siderable agricultural  interests. 


SHOWING   VICE   PRESIDENT    FAIRBANKS,   GOV.    WARNER,   CONGRESSMAN    BURTON,    SENATOR   BUR- 
ROWS    AND     WILLIAM     LIVINGSTONE,     PRESIDENT     OF     THE     LAKE     CARRIERS' 
ASSOCIATION,   IN    THE  FOREGROUND   IN    THE    SPEAKERS'    STAND. 


"In  the  development  of  these  great  and  still  unmeasured  resources  the 
St.  Mary's  Ship  Canal  has  borne  the  leading  part.  It  has  been  and  is  the 
gateway  through  which  have  poured  the  products  not  only  of  this  peninsula 
but  of  the  entire  northwest — iron  from  the  Mesaba  range,  wheat  from  the 
fertile  plains  of  the  Dakotas  and  Manitoba — constituting  a  tonnage  greater 
than  that  which  passes  through  the  Suez  Canal. 


254  THE  HONORABLE  PETER  WHITE 

"We  of  the  Lower  Peninsula,  priding  ourselves  on  the  rapid  develop- 
ment of  all  our  resources,  congratulate  you  of  the  Upper  Peninsula  that, 
largely  through  the  building  of  this  canal,  you  have  been  ab^.e  to  make  equal 
progress  in  the  development  of  your  resources.  We  are  interested  in  all 
things  that  pertain  to  your  welfare  as  we  know  that  you  are  interested  in 
everything  that  pertains  to  ours. 

"Let  us  not  forget  that  this  feeling  of  mutual  interest  is  making  of  these 
two  peninsulas  one  commonwealth,  not  only  in  name  but  in  fact — a  State, 
one  of  the  greatest  in  the  sisterhood  of  states. 

"It  is  surely  not  expected  of  me  that  I  speak  at  length  of  the  history 
of  this  great  enterprise,  or  in  detail  of  its  effect  upon  the  industries  of  the 
State,  the  Nation,  and  the  world,  for  that  privilege  is  properly  left  to  one 
who  is  as  much  a  part  of  this  great  north  country  as  the  very  rocks  them- 
selves ;  one  who  has  been  an  important  factor  in  its  every  development,  and 
who  because  of  his  good  works  is  as  well  known  to  us  below  the  Straits  as 
you  above.  I  can  thus  refer  to  no  other  than  Michigan's  honored  citizen, 
Peter  White. 

"Michigan  deeply  appreciates  the  interest  which  the  national  govern- 
ment, the  people  of  our  sister  States  and  our  friends  across  the  border,  have 
taken  in  these  commemorative  events,  and  I  consider  it  especially  fitting 
that  the  great  English  speaking  nation  of  Europe  should,  through  the  rep- 
resentatives of  the  Canadian  government,  participate  in  this  celebration,  for 
it  is  to  these  two  great  English  speaking  nations,  the  one  of  the  old  world 
and  the  one  of  the  new,  working  hand  in  hand,  that  the  world  must  largely 
look  for  its  standard  of  civilization  through  the  centuries  to  come. 

"It  becomes  my  delightful  duty  to  welcome  you,  one  and  all,  to  this 
spot  which  plays  so  important  a  part  in  the  great  business  activities  of  the 
world." 

The  principal  address  of  the  morning  was.  of  course,  the  historical 
address  upon  the  development  of  the  Lake  Superior  region  by  Peter  White, 
Marquette.''' 

*In  Api-il,  1849,  I  was  and  for  two  years  had  been  living  on  the  island  of  Mackinac,  then 
in  many  ways  relatively  a  much  more  important  place  than  it  is  now.  A  depot  of  the  American 
Fur  Company  was  there,  and  there  was  another  at  the  -Sault.  I  do  not  know  which  of  the  two 
was  the  more  important.  The  business  of  Mackinac  Island  dealt  very  largely  with  the  skins  of 
wild    animals. 

I  had  a  position  in  a  mercantile  establishment,  which  gave  me  leisure  in  winter  to  go  to 
school.  Hon.  Edward  Kanter,  afterwards  of  Detroit,  a  very  well-known  man,  was  my  employer, 
and  I  liked  my  place  very  much  indeed.  But  with  the  coming  of  this  particular  spring  there 
was  a  good  deal  of  excitement  in  the  air  over  an  expedition  overland  to  California,  and  another 
one  which  was  being  fitted  out  under  Mr.  Robert  Graveraet,  to  go  to  the  so-called  "iron  moun- 
tains" of  Lake  .Superior.  The  copper  excitement  began  some  time  earlier,  and  there  had  been, 
as  early  as  1846,  some  exploration  and  mining,  not  far  from  where  Marquette  now  is,  for  silver 
lead.      JJut    now    the    iron    excitement    was    something    new. 


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256 


THE  HONORABLE  PETER  WHITE 


A  rather  touching  incident  occurred  at  the  conclusion  of  the  exercises 
during  the  afternoon.  When  Peter  White  stepped  down  from  the  platform 
he  was  met  by  Bill  Wiaskia,  a  Chippewa  Indian,  and  two  other  Indians.    At 


CANADIAN    LUCK    WITH    GATES   CLOSED. 


It  had  been  long  known  by  the  Indians  and  others  that  there  was  copper  in  the  Lake 
Superior  country,  very  accessible  and  very  pure.  Just  why  the  miners  delayed  so  long  in  going 
after  it  is  hard  to  say.  But  somehow  the  Mexican  war — the  first  foreign  difficulty  in  many  a 
long  year — and  the  discovery  of  gold  in  California  seem  to  have  operated  to  wake  up  adventur- 
ous   spirits    everywhere. 

Eighteen  hundred  forty-nine  was  a  great  year  for  the  American  explorer.  The  '49er  of 
Lake  Superior  has  often  clasped  hands  with  the  '49er  of  California,  and  indeed  the  men  of 
one  of  these  districts  often  sought  the  other  extreme  of  the  country  to  continue  their  work. 
The  late  John  H.  Forster,  of  Portage  Lake,  was  a  California  pioneer  of  '49.  Mr.  Robert  Grav- 
eraet,  who  captained  the  proposed  expedition  to  the  Lake  .Superior  region,  was  a  man  of  remark- 
able strength,  energy  and  commanding  character;  and  I  was  advised  by  prominent  citizens  at 
Mackinac,  like  Mr.  Samuel  F.  Haring,  collector  of  the  port,  that  the  iron  mountain  country  was 
likely  to  afford  a  fine  opening'  for  an  energetic  young  man.  Mr.  Haring  had  always  been  very 
friendly   in    his  attitude   toward   me,    and    his   advice    influenced    me    a    great    deal. 

It    required    a    good    deal    of    faith,     for    Mr.     Kanter    was    paying    me    $35     a    month,    with 


THE  SAULT   CANAL  SEMI-CENTENNIAL   CELEBRATION  257 

that  moment  Mrs.  Thomas  D.  Gilbert,  of  Grand  Rapids,  daughter  of  Rev. 
Abel  Bigham,  who  established  a  Baptist  mission  at  the  Sault  in  the  early 
days  and  who  was  herself  born  there,  joined  the  party.     Though  it  has  been 

board,  and  the  coveted  school  privilege;  and  I  was  to  have  only  $12  a  month  and  board,  for  a 
year,  with  the  expedition.  Nevertheless,  I  joined  willingly.  Our  trip  up  the  lake  and  river 
from  Mackinac  to  the  Sault  was  a  tedious  and  difficult  one.  We  were  in  the  old  steamer  Te- 
cumseh,  a  side  wheeler,  and  a  mere  pigmy  compared  with  the  steamers  which  now  ply  the  lakes. 
It  took  us  eight  days  to  make  the  trip,  as  the  ice  was  only  just  bginning  to  break  up,  and 
side  wheelers  always  made  poor  work  of  ice.  A  railroad  in  this  country  had  never  been 
thought  of;  indeed,  railroads  were  then  in  their  infancy  in  the  United  States.  Railroads  in 
America  are  only  about  as  old  as  I  am.  There  were  then  only  about  1,600  people  in  the  whole 
northern  peninsula — perhaps  a  thousand  if  we  leave  out  the  settlements  at  Mackinac  Straits.  I 
have   no    means    of   knowing   how   many    Indians    there    were. 

Those  Indians  who  came  to  Mackinac  numbered  about  10,000  each  year,  but  they  came 
from  south  of  the  Straits  as  well  as  north,  and  from  as  far  away  as  the  islands  in  Green  Bay. 
They  were  migratory  in  their  habits,  ranging  far  and  wide  in  search  of  game,  fish  and  furs. 
There  were,  of  course,  a  few  Indian  trails,  but  none  of  them  led  to  the  iron  mountains  of  Lake 
Superior.  The  water  route,  I  might  say  the  ice-water  route,  was  all  there  was  for  us.  The  trip 
on  the  St.  Mary's  river,  with  all  its  remarkable  beauty,  is,  of  course,  entirely  familiar  to  all 
present.  But  beautiful  as  the  river  now  is,  it  has  changed  immensely  both  for  the  better  and 
for  the  worse  since  I  first  saw  it.  It  has  changed  for  the  better,  since  it  seems  that  the  world 
was  created  for  man,  and  man  has  now  subdued,  changed  and  possessed  this  stream  for  his 
residence,  his  solace,  his  recreation  ,  and  his  commerce.  This  was  before  the  days  of  lights, 
dredges,  buoys,  ranges  and  channel  improvem.ents.  I  doubt  if  a  draught  of  over  10  or  12  ft. 
could     have  been  successfully    brought    up    to    the    foot    of    the    rapids    at    that    day. 

The  river  has  also  changed  for  the  worse,  as  its  perfectly  wooded  banks  were  then  abso- 
lutely unspoiled  by  the  axe  or  devastating  fire.  The  forest  was  unbroken,  enormous,  beautiful  in 
the  extreme.  The  river  was  leaping  with  fish,  and  the  woods  full  of  deer,  bear  and  small 
game.       The    beaver    were     everywhere. 

I  do  not  remember  all  the  stops  we  made,  but  the  Sailors'  Encampment  was  one  of  them. 
When  we  reached  the  Sault  we  found  also  a  place  very  few  here  would  recognize,  though  many 
old  landmarks  persisted  here  not  many  years  ago.  The  Rapids  were  the  same  as  to  the  central 
fall,  but  the  canals  and  buildings  have  very  much  altered  the  appearance  of  things,  and  the 
Hay  Lake  cut,  especially  down  by  the  Little  Rapids,  almost  more  than  all.  There  were  few 
wharves  and  almost  no  shipping.  My  recollection  on  the  Canadian  side  is  that  only  five  or  six 
small  buildings  made  any  show  on  the  river.  On  the  American  side  was  old  Fort  Brady,  by 
the  water's  edge,  a  few  houses  on  the  river  bank  below  it;  but  the  principal  part  of  the  town 
was  above  it.  There  was  one  wide  street  starting  from  the  fort  grounds,  and  several  very  nar- 
row little  streets  running  out  of  it,  as  in  all  Trench  towns.  There  may  have  been  500  people  all 
told.  Many  were  French,  some  were  half  breeds,  some  were  Americans,  some  were  the  resident 
Indians.  The  first  Jesuit  explorers  noted  that  the  Sault  Indians  were  not  migratory  like  the 
others.  Some  stayed  the  year  through,  as  fish  could  always  be  caught  in  the  rapids,  and  it 
was    a    sort    of    neutral    zone. 

The  houses  were  mostly  small  and  low.  I  do  not  remember  who  the  commander  of  the 
post  was,  unless  it  was  Lieutenant  Russell  or  Capt.  Clark.  The  garrison  could  hardly  nuriiber 
50  men  besides  officers.  I  remember  that  there  was  a  Baptist  mission,  presided  over  by  a 
clergyman  whom  everyone  called  Father  Bingham.  I  knew  the  family  afterward  quite  well  and 
nice  people  they  were.  One  daughter,  named  Angeline,  afterward  became  the  wife  of  Hon. 
Thomas  D.  Gilbert,  at  one  time  mayor  of  Grand  Rapids,  and  a  regent  of  the  University.  His 
widow,  an  estimable  lady,  still  lives  in  Grand  Rapids.  Capt.  Sam  Moody,  one  of  our  party, 
thought    so    much    of    Miss    Bingham    that    when    he    found     a    beautiful    lake    near    Ishpeming,    he 


258  THE  HONORABLE  PETER  WHITE 

a  great  many  years  since  Mrs.  Gilbert  left  the  Sault  she  was  recognized  by 
the  Indians  and  when  she  asked  them  if  they  still  remembered  the  old 
Indian  hymn  that  was  sung  at  the  mission  they  nodded  and  followed  both 

called  it  Lake  Angeline  after  her,  and  "thereby  hangs  a  tale."  The  ore  under  Lake  Angelina 
proved   so   much   more  valuable   than   the   water   in   it   that   no   lake    is    there   now. 

There  were  several  stores  at  the  Sault  then,  and  we  purchased  here  the  outfit  for  our 
expedition.  For  our  prospective  voyage  on  Lake  Superior  we  had  a  Mackinac  boat  between  35 
and  40  ft.  long,  which  had  to  be  hauled  and  poled  up  about  a  mile  of  rapids,  near  the  shore. 
My  recollection  is  that  it  took  about  three  hours  to  get  up  past  the  swift  water.  '  Among  those 
residing  here  then,  with  whom  I  became  acquainted,  was  John  Tallman  Whiting,  afterward  of 
Detroit.  Here  he  had  charge  of  the  warehouse  and  dock  belonging  to  Sheldon  McKnight,  a 
warehouse  and  vessel-man,  who  owned  in  his  time  many  steamers,  among  which  were  the  Lon- 
don, Baltimore,  General  Taylor,  Illinois,  Pewabic  and  Meteor.  Mr.  Whiting,  a  most  intelligent 
and  agreeable  man,  was  long  my  correspondent  and  friend.  The  agent  of  the  American  Fur 
Company  at  the  Sault  was  an  autocrat  named  John  R.  Livingston,  as  Judge  Abbot  was  at 
^Mackinac. 

There  were  two  hotels  in  those  days  at  the  Sault,  the  Van  Anden  and  the  Chippewa. 
Smith  kept  the  Chippewa,  bought  the  Van  Anden  also  and  kept  it  for  many  years.  The  Chip- 
pewa House,  some  of  you  remember,  was  not  the  original.  That  building  burned  down.  Then 
Van  Anden,  who  kept  the  Van  Anden  House,  desiring  to  remove  to  Ontonagon,  to  keep  a 
new  hotel  there  called  "The  Bigelow,"  sold  out  his  hotel  to  Smith,  who  immediately  rechristened 
it    the    Chippewa. 

When  we  say  there  was  no  canal,  we  ought  to  add  that  there  was  then  on  the  Canadian 
side  of  the  Rapids  a  liliputian  lock,  where  it  may  still  be  seen.  It  was  said  to  belong  to  the 
Northwest  Fur  Company.  It  does  not  remind  one  of  the  present  canal  locks  very  much,  but 
then  Peter  Cooper's  locomotive  with  a  barrel  for  a  water  tank  doesn't  look  much  like  a  modern 
mogul,  but  it  is  the  same  thing  nevertheless.  The  number  of  real  vessels,  not  counting  craft 
like  our  own,  then  sailing  the  waters  of  Lake  Superior,  was  very  small,  and  none  of  them 
measured  over  200  tons  burden.  As  they  had  not  been  built  on  the  big  lake,  you  may  wonder 
how  they  got  over  them.  They  were  hauled  over  on  wooden  ways,  very  much  as  houses  are  now 
moved  with  rollers  and  windlasses.  The  Julia  Palmer,  a  side  wheeler,  and  the  Independence 
and  Monticello,  both  propellers,  came  over  the  portage  that  way.  The  Napoleon  was  first  a 
sail  vessel,  but  metamorphosed  into  a  propeller.  It  was  said  that  in  a  heavy  sea  she  would 
dip  water  with  her  smoke  pipe  and  thus  put  out  the  fires.  The  side  wheelers  Sam  Ward  and 
Baltimore  and  propellers  Manhattan,  Samuel  Taylor,  Peninsula  and  several  more  were  brought 
over    the    ])ortage    in    the    same    way. 

A  Parisian,  once  a  passenger  on  the  Baltimore,  when  she  was  making  very  slow  progress 
up  the  lake  against  a  heavy  head  wind,  walked  out  on  deck  just  before  dark,  took  a  look  at 
the  Pictured  Rocks,  and  was  much  pleased  with  the  view.  In  the  morning  before  breakfast  he 
again  came  out  on  deck  and  the  panorama  astonished  him.  He  exclaimed:  "What  ees  dis 
beautiful  sight  you  have  here?"  He  was  told,  "You  are  again  looking  at  Pictured  Rocks." 
He  exclaimed,  "What  a  great  countree!  Before  you  go  to  bed  you  walk  on  de  deck.  You 
have  a  grand  view  de  Picture  Rock,  den  you  go  to  bed,  you  sleep  well  all  night — de  steamer 
is  go  ahead  all  the  time — you  come  out  on  deck  in  de  morning,  you  see  Picture  Rock  again. 
What  a  big  country  you  got  and  what  big  Picture  Rock!"  No  one  told  him  that  the  captain 
finding  that  he  could  make  no  headway  against  the  wind  and  the  waves  had  run  back  to 
Whitefish  Point  during  the  night,  and  that  the  Frenchman  was  now  looking  at  the  same  rock 
pictures    he   had    seen    the    previous    evening. 

Lake  Superior  was  uncharted,  and  only  poorly  lighted,  and  navigation  was  therefore  quite 
as   dangerous,    or   more    so,    for   these   steam   craft   of   moderate    power,    as    for   our    Mackinac   boat. 

A  merchant  citizen  of  the  Sault  named  Peter  B.  Barbeau,  a  very  prominent  man  and  an 
old  settler,  one  day  met  a  stranger  from  off  a  boat  lying  at  the  dock.  The  stranger  said  to 
him,    "I    take    it    tliat    you    live    in    tliis    place?"      "Yes    sir:     I    do."       "Well,    then,    I    would    like 


260  THE  HONORABLE  PETER  WHITE 

the  tune  and  words  as  she  gave  it.  Peter  White  thereupon  broke  into  an 
Indian  song  with  dance  accompaniment  to  the  great  delight  of  the  Indians, 
who  immediately  began  to  sing  the  song  and  go  through  the  steps  with 

to  ask  you  how  this  town  got  its  curious  name,  Sault  Ste.  Marie?"  "That,  sir,"  replied  Bar- 
beau,  "is  a  corruption.  The  town  was  originally  named  after  a  lady  called  Susan  Maria,  and 
by    mispronunciation    it    has    become    'Soo    Ste.    Mary.'  " 

According  to  my  recollection  I  was  back  at  the  Sault  twice  after  the  first  visit,  before  the 
canal  was  opened.  Once  I  came  down  by  lake,  taking  a  steamer  passage  to  reach  here.  On 
the  second  occasion  I  came  down  with  the  Hon.  .'\bner  Sherman  on  land-office  business.  We 
wanted  to  enter  some  land  at  the  United  States  Land  Office,  which  was  then  at  the  Sault.  We 
v/alked  all  the  way,  and  the  journey  was  one  of  enormous  difficulty  and  hardship,  and  a  good 
deal  of  danger.  It  took  nine  days.  I  wish  I  had  time  to  tell  you  incidents  of  the  trip.  The 
distance  now  from  the  Sault  to  IMarquette  by  railroad  in  almost  an  air  line  is  about  153 
miles,  but  we  couldn't  take  any  such  direct  route;  we  had  to  follow  the  shore  all  the  way. 
Fordin.^  streams  like  the  Au  Train  was  very  dangerous,  and  one  came  near  costing  me  my 
life.  Skirting  the  great  Tahquamenon  swamp  was  another  heart-breaking  task.  We  would  be 
in  the  water  up  to  our  waists  for  miles,  but  we  lived  through  it  nevertheless.  Such  were 
things  before  the  canal  was  built.  The  difference  in  the  appearance  of  town,  shore  and  vessels 
was  not  more  marked  than  the  difference  between  our  dress  then  and  now.  We  hardly  ever 
wore  coats,  but  hickory  shirts  in  summer  and  flannel  shirts  in  winter.  Very  occasionally  we 
had  blanket  coats  with  capote,  but  more  usually  if  we  were  cold  we  put  on  more  shirts. 
Most  housekeepers  of  today  would  be  greatly  surprised  at  the  thickness  and  beauty  of  the  five- 
point  blankets,  which  was  one  of  the  annual  treaty  payments  to  the  Indians,  one  blanket  to 
each    advilt.      Such    a    blanket    was    nearly    as    stiff   as    a    board    and    was    wonderfvilly    warm. 

When  pay  time  came,  besides  the  blankets,  enough  money  was  distributed  to  make  either 
($18  or  $22  to  every  Indian  man,  woman  and  child.  I  do  not  remember  whether  the  Indians 
were  ever  paid  at  the  Sault,  but  I  have  seen  10,000  or  12,000  paid  at  one  time  at  Mackinac, 
and  the  whole  beach  full  of  wigwams  for  miles.  The  inhabitants  were  very  willing  to  have 
them  with  their  attendant  drawbacks,  as  it  made  trade.  But  all  the  northwest  furs  came  down 
this  way  to  flotilla  from  Fort  William.  Before  the  canal  the  Lake  Superior  country  was  the 
land  of  romance,  but  was  closed  except  to  the  limited  traffic  I  have  mentioned.  But  the  ocm- 
merce  was  both  the  key  that  opened  it.  and  the  result  of  the  opening.  Enterprising  as  were 
the  great  French  explorers,  no  trade  but  the  fur-trade  was  important  in  their  eyes.  It  was 
to  their  interest,  as  they  saw  it.  to  keep  the  country  wild,  a  fur-bearing  country.  The  canoe 
and  the  bateaux  were  big  enough  for  them.  They  never  thought  of  displacing  the  Indians  by 
large  settlements.  But  when  the  lumbermen,  the  miner  and  the  heavy  freighter  came,  the  canal 
became  a   necessity. 

From  our  present  standpoint  the  projectors  would  have  been  satisfied  with  small  things. 
How  would  a  lock  100  ft.  long  strike  you  now?  Yet  such  was  actually  planned,  indeed  actually 
determined  upon  by  some  persons  in  authority  at  a  time  not  far  from  the  achievement  of  state- 
hood. What  surprise  would  now  be  felt  to  hear  that  the  United  States  government  ever  op- 
posed the  canal!  Yet  soldiers  from  Fort  Brady  actually  chased  away  the  first  laborers  employed 
by  the  State  to  dig  the  canal,  because  they  were  trespassing  and  had  entered  on  without  per- 
mission, a  military  reservation.  The  State  and  National  authorities  were  at  cross  purposes  for 
some    time. 

In  passing  here  is  an  item  worthy  of  note:  In  1840  a  bill  was  introduced  in  Congress 
in  accordance  with  a  memorial  from  the  Michigan  Legislature  asking  for  an  appropriation  of 
100,000  acres  of  land  to  aid  in  building  the  canal;  but  Henry  Clay,  the  famous  orator  and 
statesman,  made  a  speech  against  llie  hill,  saying,  to  quote  his  own  language,  "it  is  a  work 
quite  beyond  the  remotest  settlement  of  the  United  States,  if  not  in  the  moon"— and  the  meas- 
ure  was   defeated. 


THE  SAULT   CANAL  SEMI-CENTENNIAL  CELEBRATION 


261 


him.     Mrs.  Gilbert  was  so  affected  by  the  singing  that  it  was  with  difficulty 
that  she  restrained  her  tears. 

A  most  significant  demonstration  occurred  at  the  afternoon  meeting. 

And  who  would  be  supposed  to  be  more  alive  to  the  uses  of  a  canal,  and  more  intent 
to  see  one  built,  sufficient  for  all  future  demands,  than  the  vessel-men?  Yet  the  vessel-men 
would  have  been  satisfied  with  a  much  smaller  canal  than  the  one  actually  built.  I  have  in  my 
possession  a  copy  of  a  letter  by  Capt.  Eber  B.  Ward,  long  acknowledged  Grand  Mogul  of  all 
vessel    interests,    the    heaviest    proprietor    of    lake    shipping   of    his    day.      In    his    letter    he    protested 


NAVAL   VESSELS    IN    CANADIAN    LOCK. 


most  vigorously,  but  fortunately  in  vain,  against  building  the  canal  locks  over  260  ft.  long. 
The  lock  was  actually  made  350  ft.  long,  but  260  would  have  allowed  the  passage  of  the  long- 
est vessel  he  then  had,  and  he  did  not  foresee  the  demand  for  anything  bigger.  But  what 
really  dictated  his  letter  was  the  fear  that  if  a  lock  350  ft.  long  were  begun,  it  would  never 
be  finished.  There  was  the  vast  land  grant  of  course,  but  Captain  Ward  had  so  little  faith  in 
the  value  of  the  granted  lands,  that  he  estimated  their  selling  value  at  only  25  cents  an  acre. 
He  thought  they  would  sell  for  enough  to  build  a  canal  lock  260  ft.  long,  not  one  of  350  ft. 
Captain   Ward    died,    as   it    seemed    to    some   of   us,    only   a    few    yesterdays    ago,    and    doubtless    lived 


262  THE  HONORABLE  PETER  WHITE 

There  were  seven  speeches  altogether  at  the  afternoon  session,  all  of  them 
delivered  under  a  hot  sun  and  with  a  natural  fatigue,  both  to  speakers  and 
audience,  inseparable  from  so  long  continued  a  session.     Yet  the  audience, 

to  change  his  mind.  But  with  our  present  knowledge  of  the  ores  that  have  been  dug,  the  tim- 
ber cut,  and  the  crops  shipped  from  Lake  Superior  districts,  his  fears  were  as  erroneous  as  his 
land  valuation.  Two  reflex  influences  are  here  to  be  noted.  The  canal  made  the  ore  trade, 
and  then  the  ore  trade  made  the  canal.  Without  a  canal  ore  could  not  be  shipped  at  all.  With 
a  small  shallow  canal  the  finished  product  of  the  smelter  seemed  a  more  reasonable  freight 
than  the  ore.  But  still  the  ore  trade  began,  and  the  tonnage  of  all  sorts  speedily  outstripped 
the  capacity  of  the  canal.  It  was  enlarged  and  enlarged  again,  so  that  a  trade  which  employed 
at  first  vessels  of  two  or  three  hundred  tons  burden,  is  now  rapidly  tending  to  be  monopolized 
by  carriers  of  8,000  to  10,000  tons  capacity,  each  with  a  consort,  so  that  one  engine  can  pull 
to  Cleveland,  Ashtabula  or  Erie,  16,000  to  18,000  tons  of  ore.  In  1855  it  was  estimated  that 
30,000  tons  of  freight  passed  the  canal.  In  1881  the  tonnage  had  grown  to  1,567,000  tons.  In 
1886  the  enlarged  locks  carried  4,527,000  tons.  In  1901  the  second  enlargement  with  the  canal 
open  230  days,  25,000,000  tons  of  freight  were  passed — three  times  the  commerce  of  the  Suez 
canal,    and    six   times   that    of    Kiel. 

My   thesis    is    this:      The   opening    of   the    Sault    canal    has    been    of   the    largest    benefit    to    the 
whole    United    States    of   any    single   happening   in    its    commercial    or   industrial    history. 

Every  state  in  the  Union  has  benefited  by  it.  A  long  water-haul  is  so  enormously  cheaper 
than  rail-haul,  that  the  ability  to  ship  large  cargoes  direct  from  Lake  Superior  ports,  1,200  to 
1,500  miles,  or  even  across  the  seas,  has  transformed  the  United  States  and  changed  her  posi- 
tion among  the  nations.  The  grain  of  the  northwest  now  finds  an  eastern  or  foreign  market 
with  surprising  ease.  Flour  goes  direct  from  Duluth  to  Liverpool.  Many  fields  and  millions  of 
acres  are  now  under  plow  in  Dakota  and  the  Canadian  northwest,  as  the  result  of  the  canal. 
Bread  is  cheaper  in  Massachusetts  than  otherwise  would  be  possible,  and  thus  the  canal  helps 
the  happiness  of  the  laboring  man.  The  lumber  of  Michigan,  W^isconsin,  Minnesota  and  now  of 
Oregon  and  Washington,  has  passed  or  is  passing  through  the  canal.  Without  this  transport 
it  would  be  impossible  that  the  American  people  could  be  so  comfortably  housed,  or  that  Amer- 
ican timber  could  have  been  sold  abroad  for  our  national  wealth  and  supremacy.  The  copper 
of  Michigan  is  the  purest  in  the  world;  it  is  usable  for  results  not  attempted  with  the  product 
of  other  mines  of  other  regions.  It  is  sold  all  over  the  world,  after  passing  the  canal.  It 
carries  the  telegraph,  the  telephone,  the  electric  railway  everywhere.  It  is  used  in  all  arts.  The 
age  of  electricity  is  due  to  the  canal.  The  iron  of  Michigan,  the  ores  of  unexampled  purity 
have  passed  and  are  passing  the  canal.  Before  this  movement  began  the  iron  industry  of  Amer- 
ica, chiefly  engaged  with  the  lean  Pennsylvania  ores,  was  having  a  fierce  struggle  for  existence. 
The  Lake  Superior  ores  are  rich  enough  and  varied  enough  to  mix  with  the  Pennsylvania  ores, 
and  have  saved  the  iron  and  steel  industry  of  Pennsylvania,  and  so  in  America.  The  iron 
industry  is  the  key  of  the  commercial  supremacy  of  the  world.  Before  the  canal  we  were 
dependent  on  the  British  Isles.  Now  we  can  undersell  the  world.  The  canal  made  Pittsburg 
the  great  city  that  it  is  today;  it  made  cheap  rails  and  railways  possible;  it  made  cheap  tools, 
cheap  wire,  and  has  fenced  the  woodless  prairies;  it  has  made  cheap  nails  and  implements  of 
all  kinds.  It  has  sent  our  rifles,  shovels,  hammers,  reapers,  bridges,  and  rails,  all  over  the 
world.      The    American    ironclad    is    the    child    of    the    canal. 

Kitchener  went  to  Khartoum  with  the  freight  of  this  canal.  No  English  company  would 
agree  to  furnish  the  Albany  bridge  necessary  for  his  advance  in  less  than  eighteen  months. 
An  American  contractor  set  it  up  in  three  months.  Carnegie  builds  libraries  and  rewards  heroic 
virtue  with  the  fruits  of  a  business  impossible  without  the  canal.  The  coal  of  the  south  returns 
by   the   canal    to    temper   our   winters    and    to    drive    our    engines. 

Population  is  the  child  of  the  canal;  industry  another;  comfort  another;  education  and 
philanthropy  twins  of  the  canal;  agriculture,  manufactures,  transportation,  world  intercourse, 
commercial  supremacy,  and  the  world's  acreage  the  offering  of  the  canal.  The  canal  has  reduced 
the  price  of  steel  rails  from  $150  a  ton  to  $26  and  occasionally  even  less.  King  Iron  used  to 
reign  from  an  English  throne,  now  his  throne  is  in  America.  We  are  now  the  great  creditor 
nation,    and   as    such    have    the   greatest    possible    inflvience    in    the    peace    of    the    world. 


THE  SAULT   CANAL   SEMI-CENTENNIAL  CELEBRATION  263 

tired  as  it  was,  called  for  Clergue  and  refused  to  disperse  until  he  had 
appeared  and  said  a  few  words  to  them.  Mr.  Francis  H.  Clergue  in  re- 
sponding to  the  calls  said  that  he  was  now  to  be  regarded  only  as  appear- 
ing in  the  role  of  a  day  laborer,  but  that  he  had  not  lost  faith  in  the  future 
or  in  Sault  Ste.  Marie,  and  predicted  that  before  the  centennial  of  the  canal 
could  be  celebrated  Sault  Ste.  Marie  would  be  the  metropolis  of  the  west. 

The  principal  speaker  at  the  afternoon  session  was  Vice  President 
Fairbanks,  who  was  listened  to  with  great  attention,  and  who  packed  a  great 
deal  of  excellent  matter  into  very  small  space. 

Bill  Wiaskia.  the  Chippewa  Indian,  occupied  a  seat  on  the  platform 
and  was  invited  to  speak  just  before  the  celebration  came  to  its  official  close. 
It  was  a  connecting  link  with  the  past  that  he  should  have  renewed  the 
protest  of  Shegud,  made  fifty  years  ago.  The  original  canal  lock  went 
through  the  old  Indian  burying  ground,  which  had  been  forever  reserved 
by  treaty  to  the  Indian.  Shegud  eloquently  pleaded  for  the  observance  of 
the  compact,  but  it  was  useless.     Wiaskia  related  how.  fifty  years  ago,  he 

On  the  authority  of  a  Bishop  of  the  English  church,  I  assert  that  the  United  States  lias 
now  the  greatest  power  for  world-peace  of  any  nation,  or  that  any  nation  ever  had.  Our  power 
is  largely  the  result  of  this  canal.  If  any  one  knows  of  anything  bigger  in  the  history  of 
civili ration  I  should  be  glad  to  hear  of  it.  \ATiat  was  the  Colossus  of  Rhodes?  What  is  the 
great  Pyramid?  Where  are  the  hanging  gardens  of  Babylon?  The  biggest  thing  on  earth  is 
known  by  its  results,  and  the  biggest  thing  is  the  .Sault  canal.  But  bigger  than  anything  created 
is   the   creator;     and    larger   than    anything   conceived    of   is   the    mind    that    conceived    it. 

The  Erie  Canal,  that  has  done  so  much  for  the  State  of  New  York,  is  363  miles  long  from 
Albany  to  Lake  Erie,  and  was  completed  Nov.  4,  1825.  The  first  shovelful  of  dirt  was  taken 
out  of  it  at  my  birthplace,  at  Rome,  N.  Y.,  July  4,  1817.  Its  completion  was  celebrated  on  a 
certain  day.  All  the  nations  of  the  world  were  invited  to  participate  in  the  celebration,  and 
every  nation  that  had  a  war  vessel  sent  one  with  representatives  to  assist  in  the  celebration, 
bringing  all  manner  of  gifts  as  offerings.  One  vessel  brought  barrels  of  water  from  the  River 
Jordan  which  were  poured  into  the  canal  at  Albany  to  bless  and  prosper  the  wonderful  great 
waterway.  The  whole  cost  of  this  canal  was  over  $62,000,000,  including  all  enlargements.  In 
1883  its  use  was  made  free.  It  makes  a  continuous  water  connection  from  the  Great  Lakes  to 
the  .\tlantic  Ocean,  and  yet,  great  as  its  benefits  are,  it  cannot  for  one  moment  be  compared  to 
this   canal,    only   a    little    over    one    mile   in    length. 

Let  me  give  you  a  few  figures  to  indicate  how  sensibly  the  world's  production  of  iron  and 
steel  has  been  influenced  since  this  canal  came  into  being.  First  of  all  I  will  give,  for  com- 
parative purposes,  the  production  of  pig  iron  in  the  United  States  and  Great  Britain  for  some 
years    prior   to    the    construction    of    the    canal. 

PRIOR     TO     THE     CAN.\L. 
UNITED     ST.\TES.  GRE.^T     BRITAIN, 

Pig  Iron.  Pig  Iron. 

Year.  Tons.  Year.                                            Tons. 

1820  20,000  1820 400,000 

1830 165.000  1830 677,417 

1840  286,903  1840 1,396,400 

18S0:  : 563,755  1850 2,210,000 

1854 657,337  1854 3,069,838 

Thus  it  is  seen  that  in  no  year  prior  to  this  canal,  which  made  the  Lake  Superior  de- 
posits available,  did  the  United  States  produce  much  more  than  600,000  tons  of  pig  iron.  Let 
me  now  exhibit  a  statement  tracing  the  rise  and  decline  of  the  British  pig  iron  industry  and 
showing  as  well  the  constant  ascendancy  of  the  United  States  in  pig  iron  production,  coincident 
ith   the    annually   increasing   flow    of    Lake    Superior    ore    through    this   canal. 


w 


264 


THE  HONORABLE  PETER  WHITE 


had  journeyed  to  Detroit  and  how  Gen.  Cass,  who  drew  the  original  treaty, 
had  told  him  there  that  aside  from  the  actual  strip  occupied  by  the  canal  the 

remainder  with  its  adjoining  islands  was  part  and  parcel  of  the  Indian  res- 
ervation, to  remain  in  their  possession  "so  long  as  the  water  flowed  past  it." 

SINCE    THE     CANAL     WAS    COMPLETED. 

Total  Shipments  Pig  Iron  Pro-  Pig  Iron  Pro- 
Lake  Superior  dnction  in  tlie  duction  in 
Ores.  United   States.  Great   Britain. 
Cross  Tons.  Cttoss  Tons.  Gross  Tons. 

1SS5 1,449  700,159  3,218,154 

1856 36,343  788,515  3,586,377 

lf^57 25,646  712.640  3,659,377 

1?58 15,876  629,548  3,456,064 

1859 68,832  750,560  3,712,904 

1860 114,401  821,223  3,826,752 

1S61 ■ 49,909  653,164  3,712,390 

1862 124,169  703.720  3,943,469 

1863 203,055  846,075  4,510,040 

1864 243,127  1,014,282  4.767.951 

1865 236.208  831,770  4,825,254 

1866 278.796  1.205.663  4,523,897 

1867 473,567  1,305,023  4,761,023 

1868 491.449  1,431,250  4,970,206 

1869 617,444  1,711,287  5,445,757 

1870 830,940  1,665,179  5,963,515 

1871 779,607  1,706,793  6,627,179 

1872 900,901  2,548,713  6,741,929 

1873 1,162,458  2.560,963  6,566,451 

1874 919,557  2,401,262  5,991,408 

1875 891,257  2,023,733  6.365,462 

1876 992,764  1,868,961  6,555,997 

1877 1,015,087  2,066.594  6,608,664 

1878 1,111,110  2.301,215  6,381.051 

1879 1,375,691  2,741,853  5,995,337 

1S80 1,908,745  3,835,191  7,749,233 

1881 2,306,505  4.144.254  8,144.449 

1882 2,965,412  4,623,323  8,586,680 

1883 2,353,288  4,595,510  8,529,300 

1884 2,518,692  4,097,868  7,811,727 

1885 2,466,372  4,044,526  7,415,469 

1886 3,568,022  5,683,329  7,009.754 

1887 4,730,577  6,417,148  7,559,518 

1888 5,063,693  6,489,738  7,998,969 

1889 7,292,754  7,603,642  8,322,824 

1890 9,012.379  9.202.703  7.904,214 

1891 7,062,233  8,279,870  7,406,064 

1892 9,069,556  9.157,000  6,709,255 

1893 6,060,492  7,124,502  6,976,990 

1894 7,748,932  6,657,388  7,427,342 

1895 10,438.268  9.446.308  7,703,459 

1896 9,916,035  8,623,127  8,659,681 

1897 12,469,638  9,652,680  8,796,465 

1898 14,024,673  11,773,934  8,609.719 

1899 18.251,804  13,620,703  9.421435 

1900 19,059,393  13,789,242  8,959,691 

1901 20,593,537  15,878,354  7,928,647 

1902 27,571,121  17,821,307  8.679.535 

1903 24,289,878  18,009,252  8,935,063 

1904 21,822,839  16,497,033  8,562,658 

From  this  table  it  will  be  seen  that  the  United  States  reached  its  high-water  mark  in  pig 
iron  production  in  1903,  when  18,009,252  tons  were  produced  as  against  8,935,063  tons  in  Great 
Britain,  or  more  than  once  again  as  much  as  Britain.  The  present  year  of  1905  is,  however, 
expected  to  be  the   record-breaking   year   of  all    when   more    than    30,000,000    tons    of    Lake    Superior 

ore  will  come  down  the  lakes,  and  when  the  furnaces  of  the  United  States  will,  according  to 
the    monthly    rate    of   the    present    year,    safely    make    more    pig    iron    than    Great    Britain,    Germany 

and  France  combined.  It  is  an  interesting  commentary  to  be  able  to  state  as  a  fact  that  one 
single  company  in  the  United  States,  viz.,  the  United  States  Steel  Corporation,  produced  in  the 
year    1904   a    greater   steel    tonnage   than    was   made    in    the    whole    of    Great    Britain. 


266  THE  HONORABLE  PETER  WHITE 

Wiaskia  maintained  that  this  agreement  too  had  been  violated  without  ade- 
quate satisfaction.  Wiaskia,  who  is  a  big  man,  spoke  easily,  with  large  and 
graceful  gestures,  and  with  great  dignity.  He  left  the  speaker's  stand  with 
a  giant's  stride  and  with  the  profound  respect  of  all  who  heard  him.  All 
things  considered,  it  was  fitting  that  the  exercises  should  have  been  closed 
in  this  manner.  It  brought  the  two  beginnings  of  the  two  half  centuries 
together.  Who  knows  but  what  the  Indian,  who  confessedly  has  not  had 
his  just  deserts,  may  be  better  treated  at  the  close  of  this  half  century  than 
he  was  at  the  close  of  the  last?  The  exercises  were  concluded  bv  singing 
"America." 

In  commemoration  of  the  Semi-Centennial  celebration  the  commission, 
of  which  Peter  White  was  president,  caused  to  be  erected  at  Sault  Ste. 
Marie  an  obelisk  of  hammered  Stony  Creek  red  granite.  The  shaft  is  45 
ft.  long,  5  ft.  5  in.  square  at  the  foot,  tapering  to  a  dimension  of  1  ft.  square 
and  then  finished  to  a  point.  It  weighs  sixty  tons.  The  commemorative 
tablets  upon  it  are  as  follows : 

The  total  amount  of  steel  produced  by  the  United  States  Steel  Corporation  last  year 
was  9,167,960  tons,  out  of  a  total  in  the  United  States  of  14,422,101  tons.  Great  Britain's  total 
production  was  in  1904,  5,134,101  tons  of  steel,  a  little  over  one-half  as  much  as  the  United 
States  Steel  Corporation  product  and  a  little  over  one-third  as  much  as  tlie  whole  United  States 
product. 

That  shows  the  great  advantage  that  this  country  has  in  the  manufacture  of  iron  and 
steel  since  the  entire  steel  making  capacity  of  the  United  States  Steel  Corporation  is  exclusively 
from  Lake  Superior  ores.  Last  year  the  United  States  produced  more  pig  iron  than  Great  Brit- 
ain and  Germany  combined.  There  are  plenty  more  very  interesting  figures  for  us  to  contem- 
plate, but  I  fear  I  will  tire  you  and  so  forbear.  The  increased  mileage  in  railroads  in  the 
United    States    since    1855    is    astounding   and    worthy    of    comment,    but    time    forbids. 

But  I  cannot  close  without  pointing  out  the  fact  that  the  freedom  of  the  canal  is  almost 
greater  in  its  influence  than  the  canal.  This  great  waterway  is  free  to  the  British  flag  as  to 
our  own.  as  are  all  the  canals  of  the  United  States  government.  The  Canadians  themselves 
have  been  as  generous  in  allowing  us  the  free  use  of  their  canal  on  the  other  shore  at  all 
times  and  under  all  circumstances  as  we  could  possibly  desire  them  to  be.  They  have  set  us 
an  example  of  liberality  of  good  will  that  we  must  always  profit  by,  and  be  just  as  generous 
in   return.      This,    then,    as   we   hinted,    is   Lake    Superior's    declaration    of   independence. 

This  vast  land-locked  sea  with  all  its  tributaries  is  free,  and  its  freedom  means  these 
infinite  results,  the  greatest  addition  to  freedom  since  freedom  came.  And  we  who  have  seen 
its  development  and  have  worked  the  forests  and  mines  which  have  chiefly  made  its  commerce, 
may  pause  in  wonder  that  so  few  and  so  feeble  a  people  living  under  so  cold  a  sky  should 
have  been  permitted  to  share  so  largely  in  changing  the  seat  of  empire,  and  enlarging  the  hap- 
piness   of   the   world. 

Who  that  celebrates  this  mighty  triumph  can  forget  the  men  who  dreamed  it  and  the 
men  who  made  it?  Governor  Mason  had  it  in  his  mind,  but  failed  to  bring  it  to  pass.  A  great 
thought  is  next  in  honor  to  a  great  deed.  We  have  Charles  T.  Harvey,  the  builder  of  the 
first  lock,  with  us  today.  General  Weitzel,  who  built  the  first  enlarged  lock,  was  the  officer 
who  took  possession  of  captured  Richmond.  Poe,  whose  name  adorns  the  largest  lock,  was 
famous  on  many  a  stricken  field.  Both  wrought  themselves  as  well  as  their  names  into  these 
locks,  and  both  were  capable  of  more.  If  men,  whose  genius  made  these  locks,  and  those  whose 
interests  and  ability  urged  on,  expanded,  and  used  them,  were  named  together,  it  would  prove 
that  peace  is  greater  than  war,  that  commerce  is  the  handmaid  of  peace,  and  if  the  men  of  the 
twentieth  century  outstrip  those  of  the  nineteenth,  who  wrought  this  wonder,  the  race  of  giants 
must    return. 


THE  SAULT   CANAL   SEMl-CENTEXNIAL   CELEBRATION 


267 


[SOUTH  TABLET] 

this  monument,  erected  by  the  united  states,  the  state  of  mich- 
igan, and  the  mining  and  transportation  interests  of  the  great 
Lakes,  commemorates  the  fiftieth  anniversary  of  the  opening  of 
saint  marys  falls  canal,  celebrated  august  2  and  3,  1905  ;  theodore 
roosevelt  being  president;  fred  m.  warner,  governor.  celebration 
commissioners:  peter  white,  fiorace  mann  oren,  charles  moore, 
chief  marshal:     charles  t.  harvey. 


THE    MONOLITH,    ERECTED    AT    SAULT    STE.    MARIE    BY    THE    SEMI-CENTENNIAL   COMMISSION,    TO 

COMMEMORATE   THE    COMPLETION    OF   THE   FIRST    HALF   CENTURY 

OF    THE    canal's     USEFULNESS. 


[EAST  TABLET] 

THE  XXXII.  CONGRESS  HAVING  MADE  A  GRANT  OF  PUBLIC  LANDS  TO  AID 
THE  CONSTRUCTION  OF  A  SHIP  CANAL  AROUND  SAINT  MARYS  FALLS,  THE 
STATE  OF  MICHIGAN  CONTRACTED  WITH  JOSEPH  P.  FAIRBANKS,  JOHN  W. 
BROOKS,  ERASTUS  CORNING,  AUGUST  BELMONT,  HENRY  DWIGHT,  JR.,  AND 
THOMAS     DWYER,     PRINCIPALS;     AND     FRANKLIN     MOORE.     GEORGE     F.     PORTER. 


268  THE  HONORABLE  PETER  WHITE 

JOHN  OWEN^  JAMES  F.  JOY,  AND  HENRY  P.  BALDWIN,  SURETIES,  TO  BUILD  A 
CANAL  ACCORDING  TO  THE  PLANS  OF  CAPT.  AUGUSTUS  CANFIELD,  U.  S.  A. 
THE  WORK  OF  CONSTRUCTION  WAS  ACCOMPLISHED  BY  CHARLES  T.  HARVEY, 
C.  E.,  WHO  OVERCAME  MANY  SERIOUS  OBSTACLES  INCIDENT  TO  THE  REMOTE 
SITUATION.  TIIE  CANAL,  OPENED  JUNE  18,  1855,  WAS  OPERATED  BY  THE 
STATE  UNTIL  JUNE  9,  1881,  WHEN  IT  WAS  TRANSFERRED  TO  THE  UNITED 
STATES  AND  MADE  FREE  TO  ALL  VESSELS.  SUPERINTENDENTS  UNDER  THE 
STATE:  JOHN  BURT,  ELISHA  CALKINS,  SAMUEL  P.  MEAD,  GEORGE  W.  BROWN, 
GUY  H.   CARLETON,  FRANK  GORTON,   JOHN   SPALDING. 

[NORTH  TABLET] 

BESIDE  THESE  RAPIDS,  JUNE  14,  1671,  DAUMONT  DE  LUSSON,  NICOLAS 
PERROT,  LOUIS  JOLIF.T  AND  FATHERS  DABLON,  DRUILLETTES,  ALLOUEZ  AND 
ANDRE  CLAIMED  POSSESSION  OF  ALL  THE  LANDS  FROM  THE  SEAS  OF  THE 
:VOkTH  AND  WEST  TO  THE  SOUTH  SEA,  FOR  LOUIS  XIV.  OF  FRANCE.  IN  \76^, 
THE  LAKE  REGION  WAS  CEDED  TO  ENGLAND  AS  A  PORTION  OF  CANADA,  AND  AT 
THE  CLOSE  OF  THE  REVOLUTION,  SAINT  MARYS  RIVER  BECAME  PART  OF  THEJ 
NATIONAL  BOUNDARIES.  IN  1797,  THE  NORTH  WEST  FUR  COMPANY  BUILT  A 
BATEAU  CANAL  AND  LOCK  ON  THE  CANADIAN  BANK.  IN  1820,  LEWIS  CASS, 
GOVERNOR  OF  MICHIGAN  TERRITORY,  HERE  ESTABLISHED  THE  AUTHORITY  OF 
THE  UNITED  STATES  FROM   THE  GREAT  LAKES  TO  THE  MISSISSIPPI  RIVER. 

[WEST  TABLET] 

IN  1856,  CONGRESS  FIRST  MADE  APPROPRIATIONS  TO  IMPROVE  ST.  MARYS 
RIVER  UNDER  THE  DIRECTION  OF  THE  CORPS  OF  ENGINEERS,  U.  S.  A.  CAPT.  JOHN 
NAVARRE  MACOMB  AND  CAPT.  AMIEL  WEEKS  WHIPPLE  HAD  CHARGE  OF  THE 
WORK  UNTIL  1861  ;  AND  COL.  THOMAS  JEFFERSON  CRAM,  MAJ.  WALTER  McFAR- 
LANE  AND  MAJ.  ORLANDO  METCALFE  POE  FROM  1866  TO  1873.  THE  WEITZEL 
LOCK  WAS  BUILT  BETWEEN  1876  AND  1881  BY  MAJ.  GODFREY  WEITZEL,  AS- 
SISTED BY  CAPT.  ALEXANDER  MACKENZIE.  MAJ.  FRANCIS  ULRIC  FARQUHAR 
AND  CAPT.  DAVID  WRIGHT  LOCKWOOD  WERE  IN  CHARGE,  1882-3.  FROM  1883 
TO  1896,  THE  CANAL  WAS  ENLARGED  AND  THE  POE  LOCK  BUILT  BY  COL.  POE 
ON  THE  SITE  OF  THE  .STATE  LOCKS.  FROM  1895  TO  1905  THE  OFFICERS  IN 
CHARGE  SUCCESSIVELY  WERE  LIEUT.  JAMES  BATES  CAVANAUGH,  COL.  GARRETT 
J.  LYDECKER,  COL.  WILLIAM  H.  BIXBY,  MAJ.  WALTER  LESLIE  FISK,  AND  COL. 
CHARLES  E.  L.  B.  DAVIS.  GENERAL  SUPERINTENDENTS  UNDER  THE  UNITED 
STATES:  ALFRED  NOBLE,  EBEN  S.  WHEELER,  JOSEPH  RIPLEY.  SUPERINTEND- 
ENTS: JOHN  SPALDING,  WILLIAM  CHANDLER,  MARTIN  LYNCH,  DONALD  M. 
MACKENZIE. 


jm^^^m 


EPILOGUE. 

A     REVIEW  of  Peter  White's  life  would  be  a  review  of  the  history  of  the 

Lake  Superior  country.     His  life  compasses  all  that  is  modern  in  the 

history  of  that  princely  territory — the  richest  in  a  mineral  sense  that  has 

ever  been  discovered.     The  only  part  of  it  which  his  life  does  not  embrace 

is  the  pre-industrial  period.*     What  antedates  him  is  largely  legend  or  frag- 

*The   following   excellent   poem,    illustrating    the    popular    impression    of    tlio 

longevity    of    Peter    White    in    the    peninsula,    appeared    in    the    Detroit    Free    Press, 

Sept.    27,    t8q7. 

You   know   one   man   call   Petare  Wite 
What    live    up    by    Marquette, 
Was  born  four   hundred  year  ago 
An    I'm   glad   she   hain't   daid   yet. 

Perhaps  you  tink  dat  one  big  lie, 
But  if  you  doan'  b'lieve  true, 
She's    live    for    last    two    t'ousand    year 
I'm    goin'    prove    to    you. 

Deys  got  a  Sunday  school  up  dere. 
An'   one    day   not   long   ago 
Ze   teachare  hask   em   question 
To   see    how   much    dey   no. 

"Who's   was   the   one   dat    run   aliead. 
Say,  'Mak'  road  and  mak'  'em  strait'? 
Come,    hanser   me    dat    question    now, 
Doan'  keep  me  long  to  wait." 

Jus'  one  in  hinfant  class  what  no^ 

She   was    six  year   hole    and    bright. 

Now,   T   always  s'pose   'twas  Jean  Baptiste — 

But  she  say  "Petare  Wite." 

An'  now   I've  prove  ze  haige  to  you, 
I'm  goin'  on  wid  my  story. 
It's   more  about  dat  Petare   Wite, 
An'  more  as  to  his  glory. 

Long  time  she  was  call  Pierre  Le  Blanc, 
'Bout   two    tree    hundred   year 
Before  'twas  change  to  Petare  Wite, 
By  dose  English  peeps  'roun'  here. 


EPILOGUE  271 

mentary  exploration,  and  even  of  this  history  he  has  gathered  as  much  as 
he  could  and  has  preserved  it  in  the  imperishable  pigment  of  prose.  But 
it  is  because  he  has  lived  throughout  the  entire  industrial  era  that  his  life 
has  great  historic  value.  The  changes  since  he  ripped  the  sod  off  the  iron 
ore  of  the  Cleveland  mine  in  1849  have  been  vast.  That  blow  altered  the 
face  of  a  continent.  Instead  of  the  stubborn  and  rebellious  mule  hauling 
a  four-ton  car  on  a  little  strap  railroad  there  are  now  plying  to  this  self- 
same range  some  of  the  most  powerful  locomotives  ever  constructed,  and 

One  day  she  walk  down  by  ze  rocks, 
'Bout   sixteen   sixty-four, 
An'  scratch  hees  haid  and  wink  hees  hye 
At  lit'  speck  far  out  from  shore. 

Ver  soon  dat  lit'  speck  was  a  canoe, 
Bimeby  it   came   to  shore, 
A  man  jump  out,  strange  French  man, 
What   she   never   saw  before. 

An'  dat  man  say  "Bon  jour,  my  fren', 
I  doan'  know  you,  and  yet 
I  guess  your  name  is  Pierre  Le  Blanc — 
Mai   name   ees   Pere   Marquette. 

"1  hear  'bout  you  from  mai   grand-pere, 
Dat  you  could  not  be  beat, 
An'  I  tought  I'd  stop  and  get  acquaint' 
So   two   good   mans    could    meet." 

An'  Petare  say,  "Dat's  very  good, 
I'll   tell   you   what    I'll    do— 
I'll  build  a  town  on  dis  here  spot 
An'    call    it    after   you." 

An'  Petare  tak'  him  to  hees  house. 
An'  fill  him  to  hees  jaw 

Wid   everyting   she   had  was   nice, 
Champagne  and   poisson  blanc. 

Dat  good  pries'  stay  for  two,  tree  week, 
An'   den   he  say   "Good-bye," 
Wile  great  big  tear  run  down  hees  cheek, 
Two,   tree  stan"    on   liees    hye. 

An'   den   he    iump   in  hees   canoe 
An'    shove    off   from    ze    bank, 
An'   look  up   to   ze   sky  and  say, 
"God  bless  you,  Pierre  T.e  Blanc." 

An'  Petare  built  dat  city. 

An'  did  more'  as  dat,  you  be,t. 

He  also  built  one  monument 

For  hees  young  fren  Pere  Marquette. 

A     F.  W. 


272  THE  HONORABLE  PETER  WHITE 

the  freight  traffic  along  the  old  road  bed  is  among  the  heaviest  in  the  world. 
Instead  of  a  i co-ton  schooner  receiving  its  cargo  of  ore  upon  a  gang  plank 
there  is  a  1 0,000-ton  steamer  being  loaded  by  means  of  a  trestle  dock  with 
its  pockets  and  chutes  in  far  less  time  than  it  took  to  load  the  little  schooner 
— and  all  coming  from  the  self -same  deposits.  To  be  exact,  the  great 
steamer  Augustus  B.  Wolvin  has  loaded  10,245  gross  tons  of  ore  at  the 
Great  Northern  docks,  Allouez  Bay,  in  89  minutes.  Nine  thousand  tons 
of  this  load  were  put  on  in  34  minutes  and  the  Wolvin  was  at  dock  a  total 
period  of  only  180  minutes,  which  included  shifting.  Instead  of  the  old 
strap  railroad  at  the  Portage  and  Sheldon  McKnight  and  his  old  gray  horse, 
there  is  the  great  Sault  Ste.  Marie  canal,  whose  traffic  is  more  than  three 
times  as  great  as  that  of  Suez,  the  ungated  highway  to  nations  that  were 
old  before  the  dawn  of  history.  Instead  of  the  painful  loading  and  un- 
loading of  cars  by  human  labor  there  is  the  steam  shovel,  the  drop  bottom 
car  and  the  great  unloading  machines  with  automatic  buckets.  Instead  of 
an  annual  output  of  1,449  to"s  there  is  an  average  yearly  output  of  over 
20,000,000  tons,  with  the  probability  of  the  output  reaching  42,000,000 
tons  during  the  present  year ;  instead  of  a  freight  rate  of  from  $3  to  $6.25 
per  ton  from  Marquette  to  Ohio  ports  as  it  was  in  1866,  there  is  the  present 
trip  to  trip  rate  of  75  cents  and  a  contract  rate  over  a  term  of  years  of  even 
less  than  that  figure.  The  Ocean,  the  Fur  Trader,  the  Algonquin,  the 
Baltimore  and  the  Mineral  Rock,  have  given  way  to  an  ore-bearing  fleet 
of  steamers,  rivaling  in  dimensions  and  carrying  capacity  the  great  Atlantic 
liners.  Witness  the  ore-laden  fleet  as  it  passes  out  of  Duluth  harbor;  follow 
it  a  little  down  the  lake  until  it  joins  the  squadron  emerging  from  Two 
Harbors  to  be  joined  by  a  third  defiling  from  Ashland.  Eastward  they 
sweep,  uniting  with  the  old  guard  at  Marquette,  bearing  down  upon  the 
Sault  in  a  mighty  throng,  staggering  the  imagination  to  believe  that  they 
are  plying  water  that  knew  only  the  birch  bark  canoe  scarcely  half  a  cen- 
tury ago.  Ask  what  genii  is  it  that  has  rubbed  Aladdin's  lamp  to  such 
purpose,  and  the  answer  is  Iron.  Onward  they  sweep  and  debouching  into 
Lake  Huron  join  another  detachment  coming  through  the  Straits  of  Macki- 
naw from  Lake  Michigan.  Down  Lake  Huron  they  continue,  a  vast  and 
evergrowing  procession,  closing  in  at  Port  Huron  for  the  passage  of  the 
Straits.  Then  the  great  parade,  moving  steadily  onward,  enters  the  Detroit 
river.  It  is  no  state  occasion  that  one  beholds,  but  the  common  business  of 
the  day.  Never-ending,  never-stopping,  like  shuttlecocks  in  some  great 
machine  they  ply,  making  up  the  most  impressive  commercial  pano-ama 
that  the  earth  can  show.   Sixty  million  tons  are  passing  in  review,  40,000,000 


EPILOGUE  273 

of  it  being  iron  ore  to  be  worked  up  by  countless  hands  to  do  service  to 
mankind  in  innumerable  ways. 

Forty  millions  of  it  to  furnish  employment  to  a  dozen  railways  that 
lead  from  Lake  Erie  ports  to  the  furnaces  of  Ohio  and  Pennsylvania.  Day 
and  night,  month  after  month,  all  the  year  round,  along  the  up-grade  from 
Cleveland,  giant  locomotives  at  front  and  rear,  pulling,  pushing,  puffing, 
may  be  seen  moving  heavy  ore  trains,  the  locomotives  yearly  growing 
higher  in  the  air  and  the  cars  growing  longer  and  longer  as  though  both 
were  swelling  with  the  strain  of  keepmg  up  with  the  torrent  of  ore  that 
never  ceases  and  is  ever  growing.  The  scene  is  repeated  at  Fairport, 
Ashtabula,  Conneaut,  Erie,  Buffalo,  Toledo.  Huron,  Sandusky  and  Lorain. 
It  has  been  going  on  for  fifty  years,  this  toil  of  Titan,  this  transfer  of  red, 
brown,  blue  and  purple  earth  from  the  Lake  Superior  mines  to  the  hungry 
and  roaring  furnaces  of  the  Ohio  and  Pennsylvania  valleys.  When  will 
it  end?  Its  profusion  and  its  cheapness  of  transit  have  contributed  more 
than  anything  else  to  the  industrial  success  of  this  country.  It  has  made 
its  presence  felt  in  every  form  and  condition  of  existence.  Truly,  as  Peter 
White  said  in  Washington,  the  iron  trade  of  the  United  States  is  a  mighty 
solemn  fact.  It  has  lifted  a  people  to  the  very  apex  of  industrial  supremacy 
among  nations.  How  long  will  it  maintain  them  there?  Within  the  space 
of  fifty  years  it  has  distributed  the  blessings  of  wealth  among  a  greater 
number  of  individual  families  in  the  United  States  than  any  other  nation 
can  boast  of  though  it  be  a  thousand  years  old.  How  long  is  this  benefi- 
cence to  continue? 

'Tis  a  far  cry  from  the  six  tons  of  bloom  iron  per  day  that  were  made 
in  the  Jackson  forge  in  1849  to  the  25,307,191  tons  of  pig  iron  that  were 
produced  in  this  country  in  1906.  Peter  White,  w^ho  labored  with  the  iron 
makers  in  the  beginning,  the  day  of  small  things,  saw  a  single  American 
company,  working  with  Lake  Superior  ore  exclusively,  produce  last  year 
more  steel  than  was  made  in  the  whole  of  Great  Britain.  The  United 
States  Steel  Corporation  produced  in  1906  13,511,149  tons  of  steel,  against 
6,462,274  tons  in  Great  Britain,  exclusive  of  castings.  Peter  Wliite's  six 
barrels  have  grown  indeed.  He  saw  this  same  company  ship  20,500,000 
tons  of  ore  from  the  Lake  Superior  country  in  a  single  season.  What  a 
contrast  to  the  sleigh  that  held  a  single  ton  when  he  was  a  boy,  to  the  time 
when  i8  tons  was  considered  a  big  day's  haul,  when  a  stock  pile  of  i,ooo 
tons  was  all  that  could  be  accumulated  over  winter. 

What  has  this  man  seen?  He  wrote  the  bill  of  lading  for  one  of  the 
earliest,  if  not  the  first,  shipments  of  ore  to  leave  the  Lake  Superior  country. 


274  THE  HONORABLE  PETER  WHITE 

He  saw  it  carried  away  in  a  little  schooner  to  be  portaged  over  the  falls  and 
to  be  loaded  again  upon  equally  tiny  vessels.  He  saw  it  carried  in  sailing 
vessels  because  steamers  were  largely  at  that  time  passenger  craft  and  such 
a  thing  as  a  steamer  for  bulk  freight  purposes  exclusively  was  not  even 
dreamed  of.  It  was  a  period  of  unlighted  channels  and  navigation  was  there- 
fore impossible  by  night.  He  saw  these  little  sailing  craft  delayed  by  cur- 
rent and  unfavorable  winds  in  the  rivers  and  he  saw  the  old  steamer  Gore, 
an  old-fashioned  British-built  paddle  craft,  lash  a  sailing  vessel  on  each  side 
of  her  and  carry  them  through  the  rivers. 

He  saw  this  system  of  towing  speedily  abandoned  in  favor  of  the  astern 
towing  by  the  handier  propeller  and  he  saw  the  Hamilton  Morton,  Peck 
Castle  and  John  Martin  built  for  this  purpose.  Then  the  tug  Champion 
followed  with  double  engines  and  power  sufficient  to  tow  seven  or  eight 
sailing  vessels.  Occasionally  an  increasing  north  wind  would  compel  the 
Champion  to  release  one  of  her  tows  so  as  to  make  headway  with  the  rest 
against  the  current  and  then  great  would  be  the  profanity  of  the  skipper 
so  abandoned,  a  cyclone  being  but  a  summer's  breeze  to  his  vast  and 
awful  bluster.  In  1869  he  saw  the  steamer  R.  J.  Hrckett  built  to  carry 
the  ore  of  the  Jackson  mine.  She  was  the  first  steamer  to  be  built  ex- 
clusively for  the  ore  trade.  She  was  the  first  to  be  built  with  machinery 
aft  with  a  continuous  hold  and  hatches  spaced  24-ft.  centers.  The  next 
year  her  consort,  the  Forest  City,  was  constructed.  They  are  the  parents 
of  a  very  numerous  and  much  improved  family.  This  system  of  a  steamer 
and  its  consort  began  gradually  to  displace  the  sailing  vessel  and  to  counter- 
act its  effect  the  owners  of  sailing  vessels  frequently  employed  the  tugs  to 
tow  them  all  the  way  between  upper  and  lower  lake  ports. 

He  saw  iron  supplant  wood  as  a  shipbuilding  material  in  the  construc- 
tion of  the  Onoko  in  1882  at  the  Globe  Iron  Works,  Cleveland.  The  Onoko 
was  287  ft.  long  and  38  ft.  beam,  and  was  the  largest  dead-weight  carrier 
on  the  lakes  for  many  years.  He  saw  steel  supplant  iron  in  ship  construc- 
tion by  the  building  of  the  Spokane  for  the  Wilson  Transit  Co.  by  the  Globe 
Iron  Works,  Cleveland,  in  1886,  until  now  it  is  the  only  material  used  of 
which  to  build  them.  The  Spokane  was  310  ft.  long,  38  ft.  beam  and  24 
ft.  deep.  He  saw  the  one  great  departure  in  the  construction  of  the  ore 
carrier  made  by  Alexander  McDougall  in  1888,  when  he  conceived  a  form 
of  construction  known  as  the  whaleback,  and  built  No.  loi  and  thirty  like 
it  only  to  discover  after  all  that  the  type  did  not  embody  the  points  of 
highest  efficiency  for  ore  carriage.  He  saw  how  cautious  was  the  growth 
in  the  size  of  the  ore  carrier,  the  main  dimen<?ions  even  as  late  as  1894 
being  under  300  ft.  He  saw  in  1895  the  first  of  the  400-footers,  the  Victory 
and  the  Zenith  appear,  and  in  1897  noted  that  the  Bessemer  Steamship  Co. 


EPILOGUE  275 

gave  orders  for  a  steel  steamer  and  two  consorts  larger  than  anything  pre- 
viously built,  the  steamer  being  475  ft.  over  all  and  the  barges  450  ft. 
These  dimensions  stood  until  1900,  when  Mr.  A.  B.  Wolvin  placed  an  order 
for  four  500-footers.  These  vessels  are  the  John  W,  Gates,  Wm.  Edenborn, 
Isaac  L.  Ellwood  and  J.  J.  Hill.  They  are  called  500-footers  because  they 
approach  it  so  nearly,  being  less  than  2  ft.  short  of  500  ft. 

He  saw  in  Mr.  Wolvin  the  boldest  experimenter  in  ship  construction, 
not  only  in  the  size  of  ships  but  in  the  method  of  building  them.  The  unit 
of  construction  spacing  for  an  ore  ship  is  the  length  of  the  ore  car  in  use 
on  Lake  Superior.  This  car  is  24  ft.  long.  The  dock  pockets  are  there- 
fore 12  ft.  wide  center  to  center  and,  therefore,  the  ship  has  her  hatch 
openings  24-ft.  centers.  With  these  openings  she  could  load  from  every 
other  pocket  and  when  a  series  of  pockets  was  emptied,  a  12-ft.  shift  along 
the  dock  would  put  the  hatchways  in  front  of  another  series.  Now  the 
human  ore  handler  is  wedded  to  strike  and  holidays  when  the  pressure  on 
the  docks  is  greatest,  and  the  new  type  of  ship's  deck  was  demanded  with 
opening  sufficient  to  permit  the  unloading  machines  to  operate  all  over  the 
interior  of  the  vessel.  Mr.  Wolvin  accordingly  built  the  steamer  James 
H.  Hoyt  in  1902  with  nineteen  hatches  all  spaced  12-ft.  centers.  She  took 
on  her  cargo  of  5,250  tons  of  ore  in  the  record-breaking  time  of  30.5 
minutes,  and  unloaded  it  by  means  of  the  Hulett  unloading  machine  in  3 
hours  and  52  minutes.  These  records  have  since  been  superseded  by  those 
obtained  on  the  steamers  Wolvin  and  George  W.  Perkins.  Mr.  Wolvin 
then  went  a  step  further — a  considerable  one,  it  must  be  admitted.  He 
built  in  1904  the  steamer  Augustus  B.  Wolvin,  62  ft.  longer  than  any  other 
ship  ever  constructed  on  the  lakes.  She  is  560  ft.  over  all,  540  ft.  keel,  56 
ft.  beam  and  32  ft.  deep  with  thirty-three  hatches  spaces  12-ft.  centers.  In 
constructing  the  Wolvin  hold  stanchions  were  dispensed  with  and  a  system 
of  girder  arches  were  substituted  in  their  place  to  support  the  deck  as  well 
as  the  sides  of  the  ship.  This  system,  first  introduced  on  the  Sahara,  built 
a  few  months  prior  to  the  Wolvin,  has  since  become  the  accepted  mode  of 
modern  construction  since  it  leaves  the  hold  entirely  free  from  any  obstruc- 
tion which  might  interfere  with  the  unloading  machines.  Another  novelty 
lies  in  the  shape  of  her  cargo  hold.  This  is  built  in  the  form  of  a  hopper 
with  sides  that  slope  from  her  main  deck  down  to  the  tank  top  and  the 
ends  built  on  the  same  slopes.  The  hopper  extends  in  one  continuous 
length  of  409  ft.  without  bulkheads  or  divisions  of  any  kind  and  in  width 
measures  at  the  top  43  ft.  and  at  the  bottom  24  ft. 

Recent,  however,  as  is  the  construction  of  the  Wolvin,  she  has  already 
been  greatly  superseded  in  size.     Mr.  Harry  Coulby,  president  and  general 


276  THE  HONORABLE  PETER  WHITE 

manager  of  the  Pittsburg  Steamship  Co.,  which  is  the  corporate  name  un- 
der which  the  ships  of  the  United  States  Steel  Corporation  are  operated  on 
the  Great  Lakes,  placed  orders  with  the  American  Ship  Building  Co.  for 
four  steamers  9  ft.  longer  than  the  Wolvin.  Their  names  are  Elbert  H. 
Gary,  Wm.  E.  Corey,  Henry  C.  Frick  and  George  W.  Perkins.  Scarcely 
had  they  been  built  before  he  placed  orders  for  eight  ships  of  even  greater 
dimensions — the  J.  Pierpont  Morgan,  A.  H.  Rogers,  P.  A.  B.  Wide;-.er, 
Norman  B.  Ream,  Thomas  Lynch,  George  F.  Baker,  Thomas  F.  Cole  and 
Henry  Phipps — all  of  them  being  600  ft.  over  all  with  the  exception  of  the 
Cole  which  is  605  ft.  5  in.  Even  these  were  hardly  in  the  water  before  they 
were  outstripped  by  W.  M.  Mills'  three  ships — the  W.  B.  Kerr,  W.  M.  Mills 
and  L.  S.  DeGraff,  with  their  overall  length  of  607  feet  and  beam  of  60  feet. 
These  are  the  record  cargo  carriers  of  the  lakes,  moving  in  a  single  trip- 
over  12,000  tons. 

How  vivid  this  recital  is  by  contrast.  A  single  full  cargo  of  one  of 
these  steamers  represents  seven  times  the  movement  of  ore  through  the 
Sault  Ste.  Marie  canal  in  1855,  and  one  of  these  vessels  could  alone  have 
carried  the  entire  ore  commerce  of  the  lakes  for  a  number  of  years  there- 
after. Progress  has  been  rapid  on  the  great  lakes  during  the  past  few 
years  but  it  has  nevertheless  been  cautious.  Even  as  late  as  1897  two 
big  consorts  were  constructed  for  a  steamer  then  building.  The  year  1897 
is  not  so  very  far  in  the  past,  but  it  is  reasonably  assured  that  no  one 
to-day  would  place  an  order  to  build  a  consort.  The  highest  economy  of 
operation  is  reached  by  the  single  steamer  of  large  carrying  capacity  and 
low  power.  There  was  justification  for  the  consort  system  in  the  days 
of  wooden  ship  building  because  a  fleet  of  sailing  ships  was  in  existence 
whose  natural  destiny  in  the  evolution  of  trade  was  that  of  consort.  But 
it  was  not  economy  to  build  a  new  vessel  for  consort  purposes.  It  took 
the  vessel  owners  a  long  time  to  come  to  the  conclusion  that  it  was  really 
expensive  business  to  put  machinery  of  high  power  in  a  steamer  for  the 
purpose  of  enabling  her  to  tow  a  consort.  She  burned  a  great  deal  of 
fuel,  and  moreover  lost  considerable  of  her  own  time  in  port  waiting  for 
her  consort.  The  Elbert  H.  Gary  has  the  same  engines  that  the  Manola 
had  which  was  built  by  Pickands,  Mather  &  Co.  in  1890.  The  Manola 
could  carry  3,000  tons  of  ore ;  the  Gary  over   10,000  tons. 

In  1905  the  Cleveland  Cliffs  Iron  Co.,  the  same  old  Cleveland  company 
changed  in  title  a  bit  but  not  a  whit  in  its  fine  character,  named  one  of  its 
great  steamers  in  honor  of  Peter  White.  She  was  built  by  the  Great  Lakes 
Engineering  Works  of  Detroit.  She  is  of  large  carrying  capacity  and  low 
power  and  represents  the  highest  type  of  modern  ore  freighter. 


CONCLUSION. 

IT  was  said  of  George  Washington  that  there  was  something  about  the  man 
that  was  finer  than  anything  he  ever  said  or  did,  and  probably  those 
who  read  this  sketch  may  be  searching  through  it  for  some  justification  for 
the  great  hold  that  Peter  White  has  upon  the  affections.  Splendid  as  his 
work  has  been  for  the  betterment  of  social  conditions  there  is  something 
about  the  man  that  is  higher  and  better  than  his  work. 

We  will  take  leave  of  him  at  his  camp — the  kingly  side  of  him.  The 
camp  is  twenty-four  miles  from  Marquette  and  four  miles  from  the  railroad. 
Do  you  think  that  Peter  White  rides  from  the  railroad  to  the  camp?  Not 
a  bit  of  it.  He  walks,  walks  with  the  quick,  impulsive,  springy,  forward 
movement  of  the  second  Frederick  and  acts  as  though  he  were  tireless,  as 
indeed  he  probably  is.  The  camp  is  800  acres  in  extent  and  consists  of 
virgin  forest  with  river,  swamp  and  lake  and  a  little  clearing  in  the  center. 
The  clearing  is  at  the  side  of  a  maple  grove  and  in  it  stands  the  camp 
■dwelling,  constructed  most  picturesquely  of  logs.  The  clearing  is  devoted 
to  a  garden  where  all  fruits  and  vegetables  that  the  peninsula  will  raise 
are  cultivated.  The  river,  called  Whitefish  river — probably  because  there 
are  no  whitefish  in  it — flows  past  the  door.  The  whitefish  is  a  dainty  feeder 
and  loves  clear  and  sparkling  water.  The  water  of  the  Whitefish  river, 
lijce  many  of  the  little  rivers  in  the  peninsula,  is  stained  by  the  roots  of 
trees  and  shrubs  through  which  it  passes.  But  if  there  are  no  whitefish 
in  the  river  there  are  far  greater  attractions  in  the  camp.  Free,  wild  and 
unfenced,  as  it  is,  it  is  the  natural  haunt  of  the  deer.  They  are  very  abun- 
dant and  in  summer  are  very  tame,  and  one  may  see  them  eating  at  a  dis- 
tance ;  but  in  fall  and  winter  they  are  very  wary,  and  it  is  only  a  wild  crash 
through  the  bushes  that  notifies  one  that  he  has  encroached  too  closely  to 
their  presence.  There  are  wolves,  too,  far  more  plenty  than  is  comfortable 
for  the  defenseless  classes  of  wild  animals,  and  Peter  White  and  his  com- 
panions go  on  an  annual  expedition  of  extermination.     The  camp  is  filled 


278  THE  HONORABLE  PETER  WHITE 

Kvith  the  trophies  of  the  chase.*  His  son-in-law,  George  Shiras,  son  of 
Justice  Shiras  of  the  United  States  Supreme  Court,  who  married  the  only 
living  child  of  Peter  White,  hunts  with  the  camera  and  has  made  some 

*AN  IMPROMPTU  MUSE. 

The  following  bit  of  impromptu  verse  was  written  by  Walter  Russel  on  his  re- 
turn to  Detroit  from  a  visit  at  Peter  White's  camp,  where  he  hunted  in  company  with 
George  Russel,  Jere  Hutchins,  and  other  'Detroiters : 

When  Pierre  LeBlanc  hung  out  the  sign, 

Calling  the   Nimrods   into   line ; 

While  he  would  show  he  ne'er  could  tire, 

In  heaping  logs  upon  the  fire, 

He  Httle  dreamed  as  flames  waxed  bright. 
And  smoke  shot  upward  like  a  kite, 
That  hunters'  hopes  should  also  melt. 
As  waves  of  fire  that  he  then  felt. 

The  hunters  come  in  one  by  one. 
Shake  from  shoe  packs,  snow  by  the  ton, 
And  snap  from  rifle's  death,  there  stor'd. 
And  hoped  would  partly  pay  their  board. 

Each  had  gone  out  with  feeHng  bold. 
That  when  returned,  he  sure  would  hold 
Across  his  back  and  lying  low, 
A  great  warm  Buck  or  timid  Doe. 

But  each  came  back  with  lanquid  air. 
And  softly  would  have  taken  chair. 
Except  for  the  noise  his  great  feet  wrought 
When  shaking  free  the  snow  they  caught. 

And  each  one  told  of  trails  he  ran, 
And  miles  he  cover'd,  but  not  a  man 
Did  tell  of  the  rivers  he  cross'd, 
Or  why  or  when,  was  almost  lost. 

:  So  Pierre  laughed  low  in  merry  way, 

And  "try  it  again,"  he  said,  "Next  day." 
As  days  did  come  and  days  did  go 
They  sallied  forth  with  footsteps  slow. 

And  one,  they  say,  with  awful  thirst 
For  blood,  did  bet  he'd  get  deer  first; 
And  choosing  Bob  to  flush  the  game. 
Quite  near  the  camp,  a  Doe  did  maim. 

I  '■  And  this  was  Jerry  of  Street  Car  fame, 

:  No  title  Lord  or  Baron  tame. 

But  butcher  bold,  with  air  sedate, 
'■■  ■  ■  Blown  in  from  that  great  Texas  state. 

And  when  that  night  with  'lectric  stride, 
And  brimming  o'er  with  gory  pride, 
He  tossed  the  carcass  on  the  floor, 
•     '  They  knew  full  well  their  hunt  was  o'er. 


CONCLUSION 


279 


wonderful  photos  of  deer  at  the  camp  by  flashHght  at  midnight.     These 
photos   took   the   world's  prize   at  the   Paris   exposition.     He  adjusted   a 

headlight  to  his  canoe  and  pad- 
dling silently  towards  shore  was 
enabled,  after  innumerable  at- 
tempts, to  photograph  the  deer 
by  flashlight.  While  the  slight- 
est noise  will  frighten  deer  the 
mere  presence  of  light  does  not 
seem  to  concern  them.  It  is 
probably  because  instinct  has 
taught  them  to  regard  it  as  some 
phenomenon  of  nature.  The 
boom  and  crash  of  a  great  boul- 
der down  the  side  of  a  hill  will 
scarcely  make  a  deer  look  up 
from  its  grazing,  while  the  faint- 
est click  of  artificial  sound  will 
send  them  flying  in  terror.  It 
will  be  noted  that  in  the  photo- 
graph reproduced  herewith  the 
picture  was  taken  before  the  doe 
had  time  to  raise  its  head ;  the 
click  of  the  mechanism  of  the 
camera  in  the  unrecorded  part 
of  a  second  thereafter  sent  the  peter  white  on  the  front  lawn  of  his  home. 

frightened    creature    flying 
through  the  woods. 

Any  biography  of  Peter  White  would  be  incomplete  without  reference 
to  two  things — his  celebrated  signature  and  the  equally  celebrated  punch 
which  bears  his  name.  The  extraordinary  precision  in  the  formation  of 
the  letters  and  their  great  size  are  both  well  displayed  in  the  fac-simile 
reproduction,  actual   size,   in  the  frontispiece  of  this  book.     The  sight  of 

But  Pierre  LeBlanc  had  other  schemes ; 
And  one,  the  wildest  of  his  dreams, 
Was  from  his  guests,  in  mildest  way, 
To  make  them  think  that  it  would  pay. 

To  draw  and  fill  at  cards  in  sport, 

And  thus  at  bay  to  hold  the  fort ;  ■     ■ 

"Swipe,  if  you  must,  from  this  gray  head, 

'Tis  only  for  St.  Luke's"  he  said. 


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282  THE  HONORABLE  PETER  WHITE 

this  signature  once  caused  Walter  S.  Russel  to  write  a  poem  about  it.*  The 
Peter  White  punch  is  a  famous  concoction.  A  great  open  air  reception 
was  once  held  for  distinguished  company  at  the  Peter  White  home,  the 
rooms  being  opened  so  that  guests  freely  passed  through  the  house  from 
the  front  lawn  to  the  rear  lawn.  On  the  porch  steps  leading  to  the  rear 
lawn  were  huge  receptacles,  filled  with  Peter  White  punch,  while  the  punch 
glasses  were  suspended  from  the  porch  vines.  Each  guest  helped  himself 
in  his  discretion,  some  possibly  more  than  others,  one  of  the  guests  who 

*LA    BLANC    SIGNATURE. 

Can  mak"  run  on  de  State  w'erever  you  pleas", 
Tak'  bateau  for  go  pas'  Marquette, 
Kip  going  an'  go  till  de  bad  place  freeze, 
Go  t'ousand  mile  an'  kip  go  yet. 
My  frien',  it's  a  fack,  you  will  never  fin', 
In  book,  de  bes'  of  literature. 
Any  "sig,"  so  beeg,  for  it  fill  ten  lin', 
Bel  Pierre  LeBlanc  Grand  Signature. 

Don'  mak'  no  matter  on  w'at  page  is  writ'. 
If  you  get  on  hees  curve  so  swell, 
Mos'  ev'rywan  t'ink  it  was  clean  out  of  sight, 
An'  he  work  it  to  beat  de — well 
About  as  mouche  as  an  Banquier  dare; 
For  dat  "sig"  is  no  p'tit  miniature. 
Oh  it  curl  de  blood,  an'  it  raise  de  hair, 
Feroce  Pierre  LeBlanc  Grand  Signature. 

Wen  un  vrai  Banquier  is  mak'  I'argent  lent. 
You  s'pose  he  go  lef  discount  slip. 
An'  writ'  dat  beeg  "sig"  for  less  ten  per  cent, 
Besid'  hav'  collat',  in  hees  grip. 

Not  mouche,  me  dear  frien',  he  tak  grand  beeg  slice. 
An'  he  buy  mahog'  furniture, 
Some  tim'  he  even  tak'  de  discount  twice 
Mauvais  Pierre  LeBlanc  Grand  Signature. 

Dat  "sig"  fool  des  Indian  when  he's  still  garcon, 

An'  hees  dog,  dey  was  tryin'  eat, 

De  shadow  it  cas'  on  de  snow  below. 

For  de  flourish  grand  seem  surely  meet, 

For  such  as  un  honnette  homme  would  ecrire. 

Or  one  at  leas'  w'it  some  culture 

Instead  of  a  courrier  avec  no  fear, 

Malin  Pierre  LeBlanc  Grand  Signature. 

Oh,  it's  wide  an'  it's  high  and  got  plaintee  dash. 
If  you  see  it  on  tail  d'un  draf, 
Maybee'  jus'  as  good  and  better  d'an  cash 
For  by  gar'  it  moss'  mak'  me  laf. 
But  now  I  tell  you,  an'  I  tell  you  encore, 
Dat  "sig"  so  lak'  reg'lar  French  gesture 
Is  twice  more  better  d'an  fort  jaune  d'or 
^  Bon  Pierre  LeBlanc  Grand  Signature. 

Walter  S.   Russel. 


CONCLUSION 


283 


was  something  of  an  artist  and  a  poet  as  well,  later  designing  the  pen  and 
ink  sketch  reproduced  herewith. 

One  day  Peter  White's  butler,  Charles,  in  walking  from  the  railroad  to 
the  camp  with  his  employer  noted  a  little  girl,  about  eight  years  old,  limping 
about  on  a  crutch  with  one  leg  drawn  up  and  the  foot  about  two  inches  from 
the  ground.  He  had  seen  the  little  girl  limping  about  in  that  fashion  dur- 
ing the  preceding  summer. 

"Isn't  it  too  bad,"  said  he,  "that  that  little  girl  should  have  to  limp  all 
her  life  like  that.     There  is  probably  something  the  matter  with  her  knee 
that  prevents  her  straightening  her  leg." 
"Hey  ?"  said  Peter  White. 

Charles  repeated  his  observa- 
tion, together  with  the  fact  that 
he  had  seen  her  in  that  condition 
during  the  previous  year. 

"Go  to  the  house  at  once  and 
see  what's  the  matter  with  her," 
commanded  Mr.  White.  "If  her 
folks  can't  afford  to  pay  for 
medical  treatment  I  will." 

The  little  one  was  taken  to  St. 
Luke's  hospital  in  Marquette, 
where  it  was  found  that  she  was 
suffering  from  a  hip  disease 
which  prevented  her  from 
straightening  her  leg  and  was 
the  result  of  an  injury  received 
over  a  year  before.  The  physi- 
cians stated  that  had  it  been  at- 
tended to  at  once  it  could  have 
been  remedied  within  a  week, 
but  that  now  bones  would 
have  to  be  broken  and 
pulled  into  place  through 
pressure,  and  that  months 
would  be  required  for  the  cure.  The  operation  was  performed  and  the 
child  has  now  two  sound  limbs. 

Peter  White  as  a  raconteur  is  unexcelled.  His  French-Canadian  stories 
are  of  particular  excellence.     On  the  annual  runs  of  the  Marquette  Snow 


PETER    WHrrE    IN     HIS     FLOWER    GARDEN     AT     HOME. 

1907. 


284 


THE  HONORABLE  PETER  WHITE 


vr 


'N  THe'QueBuCiTY  OF  FAlRMAR<iUCTTE. 
O/v  the:  BujESupe/7'OR'^  shoHE- 

WhEHE   the  Wf^HOERIHG  STRMUGEH  '^  C^^'?  *^     ' 

IS  ^7/?0f  /?  NfCT/)*?    TW^T  GOOO)  PLIGHT  Slp_  - 
^*"^£  ■^'PPIHG,W0I^LO  CfJLL    FOR    MORE 

Oh,WONDHOVS  COf^pt€\   ISTHI<,  EflMVUS  COMPOUND, 

WiTH'/l    0^5«ar  TH/S(?)wH»LEST/f?f?ING   /GROUND 

Dtrr  IT  H/^S  quEER  E EfECT  IH  //  CUP  TOO  MUC  H 
roij  Tue  ffaCKLESS  //no  'tiOiSCREE  T 

^Uo    DID  IT  hfiPPEN    To   OenR    FATHER  Kjf^RQ.VErTE 
He  "cot  QrF  HIS  BfiSe"  OE  6roNE: 

t-of^Tue   NIQHT  W/)S  D/?f?H  fiNO  THC  f^tCHT  W/1S     WET,      ,y; /^  ,/ 
fl^JO  HE  w»i,  we/7/?V  OF  BEING    /^LONC. 

^E  5»I0"I  \A/ILLQenRCH  fINO    TRY   TO  GET 
■Spr^e     HCffHB6l^l'n~NTi>jEOl\ILy{  ^  BONE     '' 

Wf    W/JcKCD     TO    R   HOVSe    fiT  THE    TOP  OP  T(* E  H I l-t-,- 

^i  ijff^vEL  HIS  Ferr  DID  crfuNCEi- 

'n  the  EfEfM^OFTHE  Houi,E  WHERE   /ILL  W/iS  ^TILE 
>S/?T  /?   aoiA/L   or  THE    COVETED  LUNCH  , 

"Rh!h/]^.!this  will"cr(ed he, "Just-  eili.  the  bill  , 
IVt  5TRUCK   THE  Pet Ef^WntTe  PoNCH  " 

It  OIO   FICL  THE  BlLL,/iNO  IT  EILLE  D    THE  GOOD   P/?»f6T. 
Of^CE  T/ISTING  HE  COULCHJ'ri>rOP'  , 

/xi  /?  CH/fNCE  or  A  LIEE  TIME  TO  H  fiV€  SUCH  R  FEfE^T, 
fjf^O  HE  DRHNI(  THE  VERVEf^^TOROp-  ,  c  a  <.T- 

Uofy  WH»T  Hf^PPENED  N^XT-  PID  HE  CRRE  INTHE  Lt h:>  /, 
foR  THE  \MOf}LP    SWUNG    f^ROUNO  L.IHE  R  TOP 

f\  FH^iHO  t>R'^i*ie  By  /?r  THE  ENO  OF  THE    NIGHT, 
h'WD    THIS  l^JcRRS  OLD  WitCHT    >»  fi  Veq\   ^f]0   PLIGHT 

^HD  TooH  mr^i  ^ICK  mi*jE  ey  the  d/iW/'-s  E/f/fuY  u&h t. 

HT^  .<|VG  THiSCEFe^N  IjSHf  ClimBEO  TO  HIS  HE/SH  T- 

yy^Ef^TEo  /r/6A/r/V'n^P'vM|*t. 
i/Y  A;i'.5rs/?y  th»t  this  T/f^E  YmJ  t^ff^B     ''-'''' i^-^:%  '■'if 
TE£f)T£o  i^e'/Wnfre,"      l^i^^f  ' 


CONCLUSION  285 

Shoe  club,  of  which  he  is  president,  to  some  famihar  spot,  the  members 
gather  round  the  wood  fire  after  supper  to  Hsten  to  Peter  White's  dialect 
stories — in  fact  the  tumult  can  never  be  stilled  until  he  has  related  dozens 
of  them.  Whenever  he  visits  the  legislature  at  Lansing  the  house  goes 
into  committee  of  the  whole  and  he  is  invited  to  relate  the  adventures  of 
his  first  trip  to  that  house,  consuming  days  and  nights  in  the  journey,  when 
the  only  voices  he  heard  were  those  of  the  wild  beasts  of  the  thicket. 

No  delegation  upon  the  public's  business  can  visit  Marquette  without 
the  home  of  Peter  White  being  thrown  wide  open  to  them.  The  latest  evi- 
dence of  this  was  the  visit  of  the  rivers  and  harbors  committee  of  the  house 
of  representatives  to  Marquette  on  Sept.  20,  1907.  Although  the  steamer 
was  allowed  by  her  schedule  to  lie  at  Marquette  but  one  hour,  and  was 
moreover  six  or  seven  hours  late,  the  committee  found  Peter  White  await- 
ing their  arrival.  They  were  taken  in  carriages  and  automobiles  about  the 
harbor  and  around  Presque  Isle,  the  drive  terminating  at  Peter  White's 
house  where  a  delightfully  informal  reception  was  held,  Mrs.  Shiras,  his 
daughter,  and  Miss  Joplin,  his  granddaughter,  receiving.  While  refresh- 
ments were  being  served  the  usual  demand  arose  for  Peter  White's  dialect 
stories  and  they  were  enjoyed  with  much  relish  in  the  private  library.  The 
committee  were  delighted  with  the  cordiality  and  informality  of  the  recep- 
tion and  all  agreed  that  it  was  the  most  delightful  hour  they  had  spent  on 
the  whole  trip.  The  congressional  party  consisted  of  Hon.  and  Mrs.  E.  F. 
Acheson  of  Pennsylvania,  Hon.  D.  S.  Alexander  of  New  York,  Hon.  and 
Mrs.  James  H.  Davidson  of  Wisconsin,  Hon.  and  Mrs.  Edgar  C.  Ellis  of 
Missouri,  Hon.  and  Mrs.  Joseph  E.  Ransdell  of  Louisiana,  Hon.  George  F. 
Burgess  of  Texas,  Hon.  and  Mrs.  John  A.  Moon  of  Tennessee,  and  Mrs. 
Adam  Bede  of  Minnesota.  Mr.  George  Marr,  secretary  of  the  Lake  Car- 
riers' Association,  accompanied  the  partv  with  Mrs.  Marr. 

Following   is   the    recipe    for    the    Peter    White    punch: 

3   Doz.    good   lemons 

1   Ot.  Jamaica    Rum 

1    Qt.    Santa    Cruz   Rum 

1    Qt.   Brandy 

1    Bottle    Curacoa 

1    Bottle    Chartreuse. 

1    Bottle    Maraschino 

A    piece   of   ice    8    in.    square   set    in    middle    of    punch   bowl. 

If   made    two    or    three    hours    before    serving,    it    will    improve. 
One    hour    before    serving    the    punch    put    in    one    quart    strong    cold    English    breakfast 
tea   and    five    lbs.    white    sugar. 

One-half    hour    before    serving    put    in    two    bottles    good    Charnpagne — at    same    time    slice 
thinly    one-half    doz.    lemons    and    one-half    doz.    oranges.      Let    skin    of    all  lemons    go    in. 
Sometimes   I   add   two   bottles   of   .^pollinaris    at    same   time   the    Champagne    is   put   m. 
When   you    do    not    use    it   all,    skim    the    lemon    peel    and   bottle    it    and    you   can    ice    and 
at   another   time.      It    is   good    to    serve    at    Ladies'    Lunch    if    frozen    into    an    ice. 
It    will    keep    good    for   months    in    cool    place    if   tightly    corked. 


use 


286  THE  HONORABLE  PETER  WHITE 

It  must  be  a  source  of  peculiar  pleasure  to  live  to  witness  the  wondrous 
evidences  of  change  and  progress  in  the  wild  districts  which  his  rare  recol- 
lection may  any  day  conjure  up  to  amuse  himself  and  delight  his  friends. 
Gifted  with  rare  powers  of  delineation,  conversant  with  the  tongues  of  the 
Indian  and  the  Frenchman,  his  memory  stored  with  volumes  of  reminiscence 
and  story,  his  activities  embracing  church 
and  state  and  his  heart  humanity,  it 
is  not  strange  that  the  name  of 
Peter  White  is  known  from  ocean  to 
ocean. 

Though  he  belongs  in  the  United 
States  senate  as  a  fine  type  of  American 
citizen,  we  will  leave  him  at  his  camp,  sit- 
ting before  a  crackling  fire  of  wood  and 
telling  stories  to  a  little  circle  of  com- 
panions. He  has  lived  an  upright  life  and 
he  views  the  past  with  satisfaction  and  the 
future  with  resignation. 

"The  way  to  riches  is  through  hard 
work  and  thrift,"  said  he. 

It  is  not  always  the  pioneer  who  pros- 
pers, but  this  pioneer  wrested  a  fortune 
from  the  frontier  and  is  putting  it  to  hon- 
orable use.  There  are  innumerable  legends 
concerning  him.  Some  think  that  he  is 
French-Canadian  and  that  his  name  is 
Pierre  le  Blanc  ;  some  think  he  is  an  Indian 
and  that  his  real  name  is  Shob-wau-way ; 
and  some  believe  that  he  is  the  reincarna- 
tion of  Pere  Marquette.  But  he  is  a  simple 
American    gentleman,    seventv-seven  years 

^  -  ■'  THE     HONORABLE    PETER     WHITE     AS     HE 

old,  and  sturdy  as  an  oak.  is  today. 


14  DAY  USE 

RETURN  TO  DESK  FROM  WHICH  BORROWED 

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on  the  date  to  which  renewed. 

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